Before the spring spawning and the start of operations of fish farms to artificially breed whitefish fry and other valuable fish, oil companies have begun actively buying newly hatched young fish.
To make up for the harm done to the Ob-Irtysh basin's water bodies, thousands of whitefish, nelma, and peled fry are planned to be released into their natural habitat. However, some companies are not voluntarily fulfilling their responsibilities to preserve natural diversity, and they may need to be forced to do so. For instance, Gazprom's subsidiaries failed to fulfill compensation agreements with the Rosrybolovstvo structure last year. If these companies continue to disregard their responsibilities, the conflict may need to be taken to court.
LLC LUKOIL-Western Siberia has finished terminating the contract for the artificial reproduction of aquatic biological resources and their release into a fishery-important water body in 2022. The company has not revealed who will supply whitefish juveniles for the rivers of the Ob-Irtysh basin.
Photo: noturfish.ru
According to RTS-tender, 9.7 thousand young fish will be released in the territory of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra near the cities of Langepas, Kogalym, Uray, and Pokachi. Another 171 thousand juvenile muksun, weighing 1.5 grams, will be released in YaNAO as compensation for the damage caused by the activities of Yamalneftegaz from Salekhard. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of September this year.
Similar auctions were conducted by NOVATEK-Tarkosaleneftegaz in the recent past. The juveniles of nelma and peled are planned to be released into the natural environment in the Tazovsky district. In total, 6,000 whitefish fry will go to the Arctic rivers of the YaNAO.
According to the Nizhneobsky territorial department of the Federal Agency for Fishery, not all companies that were supposed to stock rivers in 2021 as compensation for environmental damage fulfilled their obligations. The department informed Pravda UrFO that 13 legal entities did not start implementing compensatory measures. Another seven companies have fulfilled the terms of the relevant agreements.
Road builders and major players in the oil and gas market are among the companies that ignored their obligations. For example, LLC Gazprom Burenie was supposed to release fry by October 30 as compensation for damage caused by the construction of the 261st prospecting and appraisal well in the Kharvutinskaya area (Nadymsky district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug).
Under the agreement with the Nizhneobsky Technical Department of the Federal Agency for Fishery, Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta had to compensate for the damage to nature caused by the overhaul of the first line of the underwater crossing through the Baidaratskaya Bay of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta 1 gas pipeline launched in 2014 by the end of last year. Planned stocking work was not completed on time.
In addition, Gazprom Nedra LLC ignored two compensation agreements with the Rosrybolovstvo structure at once. It was planned to compensate for the damage to water bodies after engineering surveys at the Skuratovskaya area and the Leningrad gas condensate field. The second contract was related to the construction of prospecting and appraisal well No. 1 of the Severo-Kharasaveysky license area. All sites are located on the shelf of the Kara Sea.
Photo: noturfish.ru
“The department is carrying out claims and lawsuits: claims are sent to legal entities about non-fulfillment of the terms of the contract, then, if the company is not included in the artificial reproduction plan for the current year, we apply to the court with a statement to compel the fulfillment of obligations,” stressed in Nizhneobsky TU of the Federal Agency for Fishery.
Nevertheless, there are precedents when contracts are terminated without any claims to the performers. For example, this year, the State Institution of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra “Department of Highways” through the court terminated the contract with the Nizhneobsky TU of the Federal Agency for Fishery for the reproduction of biological resources. The document was signed back in 2020. The district authorities planned to start construction of the highway, which was supposed to connect the villages of Berezovo, Igrim and Priobye. Officials, among other things, expected to start building bridges across the rivers, which today make the settlements of the Berezovsky district inaccessible to vehicles in the summer (with the exception of ferry crossings).
The Arbitration Court of the Tyumen Region allowed the contract to be terminated, since the implementation of the project had not yet started. The road was not included in the planned funding of the “Cooperation” program, which the region was counting on. As a result, due to the high capital intensity of the project worth 35 billion rubles, construction was postponed until at least 2026. Accordingly, the stocking of the UAD KhMAO will be carried out not earlier than the start of work.
