On September 21-22, OJSC “Surgutneftegas” held a meeting to discuss forest recultivation of drilling returns pits. The meeting was attended by department officers from the Ministry of Natural Resources of the RF, the Forest Management Federal Agency, General Offices of the Ministry of Natural Resources for the Tyumenskaya Oblast and the Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Okrug, scientists from the V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Science, the Yugorsky University, the All-Russian Research Institute for Tree Breeding and Mechanization, managers from OJSC “Surgutneftegas”, its structural divisions, environmental services.

The meeting was convened by “Surgutneftegas”, which has dedicated eight successful years to temporary rules for forest recultivation of drilling returns pits. Currently the Company insists on developing and promulgating a permanent normative act controlling the activity. At the meeting the participants established a commission and checked the results of experimental and commercial tests of forest recultivation technology.

Vladimir Sedykh, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Chief Research Officer of the V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Science, offered a substantial paper about the method of forest recultivation of drilling returns pits and the results of its application. Mikhail Giryaev, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Deputy Head of the Forest Management Federal Agency, informed of the normative base of forest management. Lubov Malyshkina, Head of Nature Protection Department of OJSC “Surgutneftegas”, reported on issues associated with legislative and normative guidelines about biological (forest) recultivation. The participants looked over recultivated pits located at the Zapadno-Surgutskoe and Vostochno-Elovoe oilfields.

At the meeting the participants discussed current issues of forest recultivation of drilling returns pits. It is worth noting that officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Forest Management Federal Agency, and OJSC “Surgutneftegas” did not have any difference of principle on the issue. The commission came to the following conclusion: it is recommended to implement into production the technology of biological (forest) recultivation with ruling documents on carrying out the works being presented for approval in the established procedure. The resolutions adopted in Surgut are expected to be studied by the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Forest Management Federal Agency to develop appropriate regulations.

According to Mikhail Giryaev, Deputy Head of the Forest Management Federal Agency, the Company’s organizational system is the future of the whole industry. Forest recultivation method can be applied only by those companies which are ready for that in terms of technology. It has been scientifically proven that this is the best method for sandy soil, which contributes to environmental improvement.

“This method should be used in the middle subzone of Western Siberian taiga, just where Surgutneftegas operates”, says Andrei Prokhorov, Head of Areas of Preferential Protection Department, National Environmental Policy Department, Ministry of Natural Resources. “Forest recultivation can also be used on other terrains, but along with the traditional method when drilling returns pits are filled with earth.”

FOR INFORMATION:
In 1996-2004, some 1,400 drilling returns pits have undergone forest recultivation. If the Company had used the traditional method of recultivation for all these engineering facilities (pits are storage facilities dug in the earth that contain drilling waste, i.e. drilling returns, water, sand and clay), it would have resulted in digging and moving about 3.5 bcm of gravel. It would have been expensive, ineffective and non-ecofrendly. Forest recultivation is two or three times cheaper than filling (10 times cheaper for exploratory wells). Moreover, going to great expenses and filling up the pit, the operator thus creates a sand desert impeding the restoration of vegetation cover and broader biodiversity which are actually conserved for a long period of time if drill cutting waste contains toxic agents. With forest recultivation, it takes just five years for drilling returns pits to be covered with thick forest and aquatic vegetation.

Press Service of OJSC “Surgutneftegas”