Bellona: BP, Rosneft deal prove slapdash environmental attitude

- The signed agreement between BP and Rosneft has approved a slapdash attitude of the Russian government to keeping the unique Arctic ecosystem safe, says Nina Lesikhina, energy project coordinator with Bellona-Murmansk to BarentsObserver.

Lesikhina says the oil and gas industry - in Russia as well as abroad - is yet unprepared to explore the hydrocarbon reserves of the northern seas, and BP is first of all.

BP and Rosneft agreed on Friday to explore and develop three license blocks in the Kara Sea in the Russian Arctic.

Read more: Rosneft and BP form strategic alliance for Kara Sea

- It is BP’s negligence that was a reason for tragedy in Mexican Bay. The scale of this accident is just going to be assessed, but it is obviously that undervaluation of environmental risks, usage of non-efficient technologies, saving of the materials and lack of adequate response actions had led to “Oil Chernobyl”, says Nina Lesikhina.

The Kara Sea is ice-covered for some 7-8 months a year.

In Bellona-Murmansk’s opinion the risks brought about by exploring oil and gas reserves in the Arctic are higher than anywhere else. The environmentalists says it requires to re-build the standards and approaches in oil and gas industry, to conduct an extra researches to get real knowledge about the Arctic ecosystem and ways of oil spills prevention and liquidation.

Until that time Bellona is calling for an Arctic oil drilling moratorium.