Accident in Norilsk gave impetus to the new bill on the elimination and prevention of spills of oil and oil products, which was lying without movement for about two years. Amendments to environmental legislation, prepared for the second reading, will oblige the company to agree with the government on response plans in case of spills, as well as the budgets for prevention. According to “Kommersant”, the major private business sees in the project a number of flaws, especially on the issue of financial assurances for oil spill response, which market participants call a “new tax.” They fear billions of dollars in costs, especially sensitive in the context of the pandemic.The government Commission on legislative activities approved the second reading of the draft amendments on prevention and liquidation of spills of oil and oil products, said the representative of the relevant Vice-Premier of Victoria Abramchenko. The project will be considered at the government meeting June 25. In the case of its adoption, manufacturers will have until the beginning of 2024 approve plans in case of spills, and to build financial security for elimination of possible accidents.According to Victoria Abramchenko, the amendments will be adopted in the spring session, “they will systematically work on prevention and elimination of spills of oil and oil products”. “We set requirements for the development of plans of prevention and liquidation of spills of oil and oil products on land for everyone who actually works with hydrocarbons and produced from it products, by analogy with the existing provisions of the law on the seas and on the continental shelf. It is a production, processing, manufacturing, storage and other stages of handling of petroleum products,” added Ms. Abramchenko.Similar initiative the Ministry of natural resources on the establishment of a liquidation Fund for mining facilities was also discussed several years ago, but in the end, after criticism from the subsoil and was not approved. The new project also involves the formation of cash reserves at the expense of the companies for spill response and damages.The draft stipulates different conditions for the granting of financial guarantees to private companies and state-owned companies. According to the document (a copy is in “Kommersant”), as financial support private industrial companies in case of a spill will need to submit a Bank guarantee for payment of funds in accordance with the plan, or a contract of insurance or document on the establishment of a reserve Fund. Enterprises in state ownership may be limited to a letter of guarantee from an authorized authority, that is unfair to other businesses, emphasizes the source of “Kommersant” in the market. Describes the types of financial bothsichenia, say market participants, will require significant additional expenditures, in terms of the coronavirus might have a negative impact on production.Kommersant’s source familiar with the position of the RUIE, said that the project must be secured as collateral or guarantee “a corporate guarantee”, which will leave from “unreasonable” additional financial burdens. In his opinion, the establishment of a reserve Fund is actually a new tax, but this kind of fees is not in the Tax code.Read more”If the right organization, process design, process of construction and operation, all the risks can be minimized, to reduce to zero,”— said in June the possibility of recurrence of accidents in Norilsk head of “Gazprom oil” Alexander Dyukov. In the largest companies working in the Arctic, including Rosneft, Gazprom, and NOVATEK, Norilsk Nickel, on request “b” did not answer.According to Maria Spiridonova from Deloitte in the CIS, according to 2017, 48% of disturbed lands are in the oil industry, ferrous metallurgy and the coal industry.From Igor Korotetskiy, KPMG notes that the worst-case scenario of such accidents involve damages in the hundreds of millions or billions of rubles, and the amount of funds for elimination of consequences, taking into account compensation to third parties, in order of costs may be comparable to the size of the damage. “Keep the dead weight of financial security in the form of reserve is not really an effective strategy,— said Mr. Korotetskiy.— Bank guarantee or liability insurance can be a compromise.”A cursory analysis of publicly available plans for the elimination shows that this is often a very formal document, said Mr. Korotetskiy. Also, in some cases, attract the attention of the clearly under-estimates of damage (up to 35 mln.) and the amount of funds on elimination of consequences of accidents (500 thousand.) some large companies, he continues. If the same evaluations are used in the framework of the operational risk management system, the expert believes, they will likely not come to the attention of management and the Board of Directors of the company.Dmitry Kozlov, Anna Vasilieva
