Integra-Burenia received debts of 250 million, and industry workers were reminded of an illegal sludge storage facility in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
Rosprirodnadzor has new questions for Nanex
The large Tyumen oilfield service company Integra-Bureniye faced a wave of lawsuits worth million. Some companies claim that Integra-Bureniye didn't pay for the work done on the disposal of hazardous industrial waste removed from the fields. The Nizhnevartovsk company Nanex has filed about a dozen lawsuits against partners for a total amount of about 250 million rubles. Nanex is suspected of operating an illegal sludge disposal site in the Samotlor field, which has been receiving hazardous waste from Integra-Burenia and Samotlorneftepromkhim. Violations in the area near the Nizhnevartovsk-Raduzhny highway have been repeatedly identified by authorities, but the placement of waste continues. Nanex remains under the scrutiny of Rosprirodnadzor, which pointed out objects that negatively impact the environment.
The Arbitration Court of the Tyumen Region ruled on a lawsuit filed by Nanex LLC from Nizhnevartovsk against Integra-Bureniye, a large regional oilfield services company (controlled by IG Holdings Ltd, registered in Cyprus, and managed through Felix Lyubashevsky’s Integra Management LLC).
A firm from Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug sought to recover 24.3 million rubles for the collection, transportation and disposal of drilling waste. During the process, the requirements were clarified and reduced to 8.1 million rubles. The total amount of financial claims of waste disposers, reflected in the materials of the Tyumen arbitration in other claims, reaches 248 million rubles.
For example, the court will soon consider Naneks' application for more than 14 million related to non-payment for the transportation and disposal of drilling waste under the contract dated March 15, 2021. Last year, the arbitration accepted for consideration a claim for 16.7 million rubles, and this month – for another 23 million rubles. These claims also relate to the terms of said contract.
Several cases worth tens of millions are at various stages of consideration, but the arbitration has satisfied the above-described claim. According to the documents, Nanex was supposed to provide services for the collection, transportation and disposal of waste from production sites within the Samotlor oil field. The amount of work under the agreement, excluding VAT, reached 220.6 million rubles.
In just May of last year, Nanex got rid of waste worth 24.3 million, but didn't get paid in full. They sent bills to Integra-Burenia, who admitted owing money and made repayment schedules, but still didn't pay, leading to another lawsuit.
After hearing both sides, the arbitration ruled in favor of Naneks against Integra-Bureniye. The amount is a big deal for the latter. The company, once seen as a leader in oilfield services, has struggled financially in recent years. They had a net loss of about 327.3 million in 2019, made a profit of 255.2 million in 2020, but only 2.7 million in 2021. They faced bankruptcy claims and lost lawsuits totaling 402 million in 2021. They also have unpaid debts from legal proceedings.
Industry experts watching the conflict note that the court didn't consider issues about where Nanex stores drill cuttings from Integra-Burenia sites. Nanex was previously connected to a sludge storage facility at the 62nd kilometer of the Nizhnevartovsk-Raduzhny highway in the UDS-4 area of the Samotlor field.
This site has been getting thousands of cubic meters of waste for 10 years, including waste from Integra-Burenia and Samotlorneftepromkhim. Industry and eco-community representatives suggested that the waste removed under Nanex's contract with Integra-Burenia might end up there.
This location was brought up 10 years ago at a meeting in the Ural Federal District, where weak control was pointed out by the head of the Nizhnevartovsk region, Boris Salomatin. Environmental agencies found many violations and demanded the territory be cleared of waste. However, it appears that no action was taken, and waste continued to be placed there. Local ecologists estimate the damage there could reach 5 billion, with a total volume of 500 thousand cubic meters. This is similar to the environmental disaster at pad 202 of the Priobskoye field caused by Rosekoprompererabotka.
It seems that these circumstances are not currently a concern for the courts, and according to the agency’s sources, the customers themselves don't care about where their waste ends up, even though large enterprises have their own environmental control departments.
One way or another, experts record a new surge of interest in the activities of Nanex on the part of Rosprirodnadzor. In December, the department organized verification activities.
“According to the data at the disposal of the Ural Interregional Directorate of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Natural Resources, it was revealed that NPO Naneks LLC did not register objects that have a negative impact on the environment on state records,” the text of the warning reads. However, where exactly these sites are located is not indicated in the documents.
