KRASNOYARSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2020) Russian energy company Nornickel has spent about 3 billion rubles ($39 million) on cleaning up a diesel fuel spill in Norilsk, Nikolay Utkin, the director of the company's Polar Division, spoke on Wednesday.
"We have already spent about 3 billion rubles on fixing the fuel spill incident," Utkin said at a meeting with upper house lawmakers.
He explained to reporters that this cost was the first part of the documented expenses that the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company (NTEC, part of the Norilsk Nickel group) had already reported to Russian environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor.
"In general, the company estimates the costs at 13.3 billion rubles (collection, separation of fuel from water, storage, cargo delivery, rehabilitation of natural resources)," the presentation that was shown to the lawmakers read.
On May 29, 2020, there was a fuel leak at Heat and Power Plant �� 3 in the region of Norilsk due to the sudden sinking of support posts. The spill released 21,000 tonnes of diesel into rivers and subsoil.
A lawsuit, which was filed by Rosprirodnadzor against NTEC to recover 148 billion rubles in environmental damages, was admitted by the Krasnoyarsk region Arbitration Court on September 16, 2020. NTEC believes that the claims are not justified and assesses the damage at 21.4 billion rubles, saying its estimate, although based on the same formula, diverges from that of Rosprirodnadzor.
