(Reuters) – A pipeline burst in Russia’s northwestern Komi Republic threatens to leak 1,000 cubic metres of oil into a nearby river and cause serious environmental damage, the head of state environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor warned on Monday.
“There was a burst in an oil pipeline near Usinsk. According to our calculations, 1,000 cubic metres of oil could get into the Kolva River,” the official, Svetlana Radionova, wrote on the Telegram messenger app.
“Oil products have gotten into the ground and the water, this is major damage to the environment,” she wrote.
Local authorities said the incident occurred on Sunday in a pipeline in the Yuzhno-Osh oil field, operated by Nobel Oil LLC. A “high alert” regime is in effect in the area.
No comment was immediately available from Nobel Oil.
In May 2021, a pipeline spill in Komi leaked 100 tonnes of oil, including nine tonnes that flowed into the Kolva river.
The energy-rich region witnessed one of the worst oil spills in Russian history in August 1994, when its ageing pipeline network sprang a leak that was officially said to have totalled 79,000 tonnes, or 585,000 barrels. Independent estimates put the figure at up to 2 million barrels.
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
