It is known that the amount of damage caused by the oil spill at
the CPC Marine Terminal in August 2021 was calculated by Rosprirodnadzor as per
the formula given in clause 13 of the Methodology for calculating damage caused
to water bodies as a result of violations of water legislation (approved by RF
Ministry of Natural Resources Resolution No. 87 of 13.04.2009). According to
this formula, the mass of crude oil spilled into a water body is the base value
for determining the fee for environmental damage.
There is fundamental disagreement between CPC and RPN on this
issue. The consortium is fairly confident that 69.1 tons of crude oil were spilled
into the water body due to this emergency. We believe that the methods used by
Rosprirodnadzor for determining the mass of crude oil disallow to obtain a
correct result for a number of reasons.
RPN fails to take into account important process and design
specifics of the CPC-R Marine Terminal, due to which some of the crude oil that
passed the meter skid, which readings RPN uses for its calculation, could not
physically get into the water body because this crude oil:
· remained
in the offshore subsea pipeline (5 km long) downstream the meter skid;
· was left
in the SPM well.
We are sure: despite the fact that the methods used by RPN to
determine the mass of the crude oil obviously disallow to receive a correct
result, the supervisory authority in violation of its own calculation guidance
documents did not apply other methods for determining the mass of crude oil as
per Methodology No. 87, for example:
- based on the area of
oil spill determined by instrumental and visual methods;
- based on the amount of crude oil collected by oil skimmers or
other means during oil spill response operations;
- based on evaluation of the condition of the water body and
external signs of the oil film in accordance with Methodology No. 87.
CPC thinks that in court while resolving the issue about the
mass of crude oil spill into the water body, the parties, in any case, should
not be prevented from presenting the evidence necessary to support their
position on this issue. Therefore, CPC requested the court for a court expert
review to ask the following to experts:
1. What are the methods (mentioned in the Methodology for
calculating the amount of damage caused to water bodies as a result of
violations of water legislation approved by RF Ministry of Natural Resources
Resolution No. 87 of 13.04.2009), which can be used to determine the mass of
crude oil spilled into the water body as a result of damage caused to the
expansion joint casing of Single Point Mooring No. 1 on August 7, 2021;
2. Determine the mass of crude oil ingress to the water body due
to the damage of the expansion joint casing of Single Point Mooring No.1 on
August 7, 2021 by all applicable methods established in response to Question 1.
The refusal to do so has actually deprived CPC of the
opportunity to present evidence in support of its objections, which violates
the principle of equality of arms and the adversarial principle.
CPC plans to continue defending its position in the legal field
and proving its point.
CPC is
ready to maintain a meaningful dialog, as well as it provides full assistance
to RPN in the course of the inspection targeted to fulfill the instruction of
Viktoria Abramchenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, of April
6, 2022 to evaluate the technical condition of CPC production facilities.
The Commission consisting of 81 people - 30 RPN representatives
and 51 specialists of the Lab Analysis and Technical Measurements Center - is
working from April 19 to May 4, 2022 at 14 CPC facilities in Krasnodar Krai,
Astrakhan Oblast, the Republic of Kalmykia and Stavropol Krai.