Russia watchdog reports oil leak at TNK-BP unit
Source: Reuters
MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russia's environmental agency said on Saturday that environmental violations at Orenburgneft, a subsidiary of Anglo-Russian oil firm TNK-BP <BP.L>, had caused an oil pipeline leak on Feb. 28 which threatened water supplies. "The problem is a pipeline accident at Orenburgneft's Krasnoyarskoye oilfield, which led to oil leaking into Bolshoi Kinel river," Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the agency, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. Mitvol said pipeline traffic had been stopped and the agency was trying to estimate the environmental damage. Local media reported earlier this week about 5 tonnes of oil products had leaked into the river in the Orenburg region. Operations of TNK BP's parent, BP Plc, are under intense scrutiny after a corroded transit pipeline at its giant Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska ruptured last March, resulting in the largest-ever onshore oil spill in the U.S. state. Mitvol said worn-out machinery at Orenburgneft, which produced 120 million barrels of crude in 2006, had caused the leak. The leak posed a danger to water supplies in the eastern Russian region, which borders Kazakhstan. The TNK-BP joint venture is itself under a cloud because the state is threatening to withdraw its licence for the Kovykta gas field, a huge field well-placed for gas exports to China, after Mitvol has asked prosecutors to look into ecological violations. Mitvol shot to fame last year when he mounted a campaign over environmental standards at the $22 billion Royal Dutch Shell-led <RDSa.L> Sakhalin-2 project.
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