LESIKHINA N.A, Bellona-Murmansk, Russia

Bellona was formed as a nongovernmental organization in 1986. Bellona is an environmental research organization that has as its main goals the fight to preserve the environment, and the fight with threats posed by pollution to people's health and with negative environmental effects of various strategies for global economic development.

Bellona has set itself the goal of drafting and proposing practical solutions to minimize the dangerous effects of man's activity.

Bellona tries to keep civil society and the media - and especially politicians and civil activists - informed about new threats to the environment, and also to participate in drafting projects to solve these problems.

Obviously, for the Arctic shelf the risks of developing oil and gas deposits are higher than in other areas, based on the tricky natural and climatic conditions, the necessity to use unusual technologies and equipment, the poor infrastructure, and spotty legal base regarding safety.

In our opinion, there are a number of approaches to overcome environmental problems caused by intensive oil and gas exploitation in the Arctic region.

Rational use of natural resources. Under financing of prospecting work leads to a slower growth rate of hydrocarbon reserves. Oil companies aim for intensive oil extraction with minimal spending. The lack of economic stimulus and state administration leads to selective extraction of the most productive reserves, reduced oil extraction coefficient and irremediable losses of some parts of the oil reserves. In Russia, the average extraction coefficient is 35%, making it necessary to develop new fields and as a result increasing the environmental burden.

There is an obvious need for rational use of natural resources during which no new wells are developed until previous ones are exhausted. Of course, for this to happen certain conditions must be met: the extracting company must be given tax breaks as an economic stimulus, licensing conditions must be stricter, and new environmental safety standards introduced that meet global norms.

Reducing the number of fields being developed guarantees:

• Substantial reduction in greenhouse gases that facilitate climate change;

• Reduction of the negative impact of oil and gas extraction side products on local ecosystems;

• Introduction of new technologies to improve the oil extraction coefficient and strengthen existing infrastructure for extraction and transportation of oil products.

In the absence of detailed research into northern seas' ecosystems and adequate knowledge of the effect on them of oil products, such measures would bring about a substantial reduction in negative environmental effects and reduce the risk of environmental disaster.

Minimizing negative effects of oil and gas on the local environment. The Arctic region includes environmentally important and vulnerable zones that are of great importance in terms of bioresources. For this reason, they demand special attention during prospecting, extraction and transportation of hydrocarbon raw materials.

Oil pollution of the ocean surface leads to reduced reproductivity of marine life. Oil hydrocarbons that get into the food chain reduce the consumer quality of fish and other seafood. But oil spills are most destructive for seabirds. If oil comes into contact with their plumage, they can lose the ability to retain heat and deprive the birds of their ability to fly. The birds die of hypothermia and nervous stress. The greatest damage from oil spills is suffered by coastal ecosystems near fish-spawning grounds and nurseries, as well as stopover locations for wild birds.

Opportunities for state bodies regarding oversight of environmental protection of the unique Arctic region is in large measure dependent on the timeliness and quality of data on current and anticipated climatic conditions and marine pollution along the continental shelf. In this regard particular attention should be paid to expert assessment of environmental and climate aspects of maritime projects, as well as monitoring of the current condition and pollution of the environment, etc.

In our opinion, an effective way to minimize negative effects on the environment would be the creation of special oil-activity-free zones in places that are important for migration and spawning of valuable types offish, as well as stopover points for migratory birds.

Improvement of reaction system and plans to clean up after oil spills. The proposed intensive increase in transported volumes, including in the Barents Sea basin, will inevitably outstrip the development of regional mechanisms to cope with oil spills. At present, the moral and physical disrepair of ships and specialist equipment is characteristic of the reaction system; in addition, emergency services' bases are far away, monitoring and control systems are lacking, as are mechanisms for predicting the behaviour of oil spills, and there is a lack of funds to protect and clean up coastlines, etc.

Plans drafted for each oil or gas project to deal with oil spills have a number of deficiencies, including;
a. Inadequate forecasting of the scale of oil spills and how they will develop, which are drawn up using different methodologies and presented selectively;

b. Incomplete drafting of methods and tactics for using boats and technical equipment to deal with oil spills, and lack of foundation for their accuracy or adequacy in anyemergency situation considered;

с Inappropriate reaction times (delivery times, rolling out of countermeasures and localization of oil spill at the site) and legal measures;
d. Lack of control of remaining pollution after clean-up operation is completed.

The situation can be resolved by improving warning and coordination systems among various bodies, by signing agreements to deal with spills, by developing legal demands for equipment on specialised boats for working with oil spills in Arctic waters, by detailed drafting of plans to deal with oil spills and regular updating to take into account local specifics and the intensity of oil and gas activity.

Above all, to stave off environmental disaster personnel working on oil and gas installations must be trained and technical support and systems improved, as well as integrated environmental monitoring.

Development of comprehensive environmental monitoring systems. Projects being realised on land and on the Russian shelf have wildly different monitoring systems. Whereas on land monitoring can and should be carried out by the extracting company under the control of the Natural Resources Ministry, in the White and Barents seas, say, which are both promising for oil and gas but which currently lack drilling platforms and equipment, this function falls outside the licensed plots (i.e., the non-allotted subsurface) and should be carried out by the state.

To date there is no territorial system to monitor environmental factors where oil is being drilled or along transport routes, including regional and local subsystems. This makes it more difficult to create a database on the environmental circumstances in the Arctic and to assess the man-made burden there, which will increase intensively in the next few years.

The need to harmonise approaches to environmental control can be most clearly seen at present in border areas. Possible ways out of the current situation include:

• Formation of a single information network to exchange environmental information;
• Creation of a global comprehensive monitoring system;
• Joint research projects with the aim of defining the limits for influence on nature in the Arctic region.

Improving legislation. One of the main problems for further study and exploitation of maritime deposits is unwieldy and ineffective legislation regulating natural resources usage and environmental safety on the Arctic shelf.

To improve the legislation we need to develop a system of standards norms and rules for maritime natural resources usage, environmental protection and technical oversight, including environmental-impact and risk-assessment studies for the environment.

Involvement of civil society in environmental assessment. In Russian practice, the work of oil companies tends to remain closed to civilian control. In conditions of weak state control of environmental protection over the last few years, the development of the oil business both in Russia and abroad has proved the necessity to strengthen control in this sphere of the economy, including with the active involvement of nongovernmental environmental organizations and the wider public in decision-making.

Legislation encodes guarantees of civil involvement in the drafting and discussion of materials to assess the effect on the environment of economic activity that is subject to environmental assessment as an inalienable part of the impact assessment process (principles of openness, involvement of NGOs, public hearings during environmental assessments, etc.).

Russian legislation defines a narrow list of forms of civil society participation, but no concrete ways to guarantee such participation or ways of measuring public opinion i.e., the right of citizens to participate in decision-making on environmentally sensitive issues is largely formal.

The main forms of civil participation in environmentally sensitive decision making as enshrined in the Constitution and a number of federal laws (the laws on the environment, on environmental expert assessment, and on information, informatisation, and data protection) are:

• Public awareness;
• Public hearings;
• Civilian environmental expert assessment.

Civilian involvement at all stages of the decision-making process on environmentally sensitive issues can help minimise the risk of conflicts between politicians, businessmen and the general public, and most importantly stop the realisation of socially, economically and environmentally dangerous projects.

Bellona is in favour of:
• Environmentally responsible policies for oil and gas companies;
• Free access to and openness of environmental information;
• Guarantees of social involvement in environmentally sensitive decision-making;
• Companies observing legislation on environmental protection;
• Introduction of cutting-edge technologies and environmental standards aimed at minimising negative effects on the environment;
• Development of cross-border monitoring and clean-up systems for spillages;
• Better planning for preventing and dealing with spillages;
• Companies insuring for ecological risks;
• The creation at particularly sensitive and valuable ecosystems of oil-and-gas-activity-free zones (limiting hydrocarbon transport);
• Development of Russian-Norwegian collaboration in averting and dealing with oil spills - exchange of information, joint monitoring, personnel training, etc.
Only given multilateral consideration of the problem and the involvement of specialists and civil society can we maintain environmental safety and economic profitability in regional development - sustainable regional development!

OIL AND GAS OF ARCTIC SHELF 2006 (PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE)