Nenetsk Oil is to Finland's Liking

It is necessary to make all companies be more focused on environment-friendly production
This summer, the SeverTEK company (a joint enterprise created by the Finnish corporation Fortum and Russia's KomiTEK) is going to start oil extraction in the Yuzhny-Shapkinsky oil field in the Nenetsk autonomous region. The company expects to extract over 700,000 tons of oil in the field in 2003.

SeverTEK spokesperson Natalya Atlashkina told the Russky Sever news agency, although the enterprise had been registered in 1996, it managed to start large-scale work in the region only in 2001. That was possible thanks to a large investor, the KomiTEK company (LUKOIL's subsidiary). It helped the oil workers get a $200-million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; the money was spent on development of the oil field.    

Natalya Atlashkina says that much has been done within the past two years: 100 kilometers of oil pipeline have been laid; a finish pumping station has been built and 12 operational oil wells have been drilled. SeverTEK seriously cares about ecology. Natalya Atlashkina says, the company is planning to employ a technology that will allow not to burn natural gas but pump it back into oil wells. "We've got rid of natural gas burning, which is a considerable contribution into environmental protection of the region and helps preserve the traditional environment of the scanty people." This certainly involves extra spending. The company says that it is necessary to encourage initiatives of this kind, in order to make all companies be more focused on environment-friendly production. This is quite a problem so far in the Nenetsk autonomous region.