Over the first half of 2022, Samotlorneftegaz, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s production complex, commissioned 174 km of new and upgraded pipelines, four times more year-on-year.

Developing technological capacity and ensuring the safe operation of industrial facilities is one of the key priorities of Rosneft’s strategy. To achieve the best performance in environmental protection, the Company improves approaches to environmental management, increases the scale of environmental measures and the necessary investments for these purposes.

Samotlorneftegaz is implementing a Pipeline Reliability Improvement programme to ensure that the pipeline network is secure at all stages of operation. The integrity of the networks is monitored around the clock, using drones among other means. This year, the increased number of flyovers has more than doubled the average daily flying distance to 1,450 km, which has significantly improved the efficiency of monitoring the pipeline fleet.

Following environmental remediation activities in 2021, Samotlorneftegaz’s specialised units cleaned up 154 hectares of historical heritage land (accumulated during the Soviet period). The enterprise has restored more than 1,300 hectares of land disturbed in the past from 2015 to 2020.

Samotlorneftegaz has improved its associated petroleum gas utilisation rate to 98.9% in 2021, one of the highest levels in the industry, by upgrading the technology of its production process. The enterprise annually produces about 6 billion cubic metres of gas, most of which is supplied to gas processing plants.

One of the key areas of Rosneft’s long-term environmental agenda is reducing its carbon footprint. The Company aims to achieve carbon neutrality for direct and indirect production-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Samotlorneftegaz has made methane emission reductions a priority in its operations. The enterprise continues to introduce a set of special technical tools for detecting greenhouse gas emissions. In the six months of this year, almost 1,500 tests have been carried out, which is already more than the entire 2021. A set of technical tools, which Rosneft pioneered specifically at Samotlor, includes infrared cameras, a laser scanner, an ultrasonic detector and drones with a laser gas analyser, which can detect even minor emissions.

Preserving the environment for future generations is one of the key areas of Rosneft’s development strategy. Samotlorneftegaz has been actively supporting the regional Conservation of Siberian Sturgeon programme as part of the national Ecology project since 2020. In 2021, the enterprise’s employees released about 2 million muksun and Siberian sturgeon fry into the Ob-Irtysh and Yenisei basins. Overall, more than 11 million fry of valuable fish species have been released into the waters of northern rivers over the past five years.

In 2021, Samotlorneftegaz planted 350,000 seedlings of conifers, such as Siberian cedar and pine, on a total area of 80 hectares. Since 2008, the enterprise has been regularly carrying out afforestation in the Nizhnevartovsk, Megion and Aganskoye forestry districts. Some 1.7 million seedlings have been planted on a total area of 450 hectares over this period. Once the trees have grown, they will help to absorb 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

Rosneft
Information Division
August 10, 2022

Keywords: Environmental news 2022