Rosneft and Russian Arctic National Park Commence Environmental Project to Restore Arctic Ecosystems
Rosneft Oil Company and Russian Arctic National Park commence a comprehensive project to restore the ecosystem of Russia’s northernmost territories, the Franz Josef Land archipelago.
The project’s main goal is to assess the scope of pollution of the wildlife sanctuary archipelago’s territory caused by human economic activities during the Arctic development in the Soviet period. The Soviet period of “nature subduing” in the Arctic left traces of human economic activities, including petroleum lubricants pollution, which were brought in large quantities to support the work of scientific, meteorological bases and military facilities.
It is the first time the comprehensive programme for studying the external interferences on the Arctic ecosystem is being implemented. The programme will be attended by some of Russia’s best experts in geology, chemistry, biology and geography. The scientists will delineate areas of accumulated environmental damage and identify the dynamics of fuels and lubricants in the soil. Experts will also assess the impact of historical heritage on the islands’ ecosystems of the protected area.
The scientists’ recommendations will help determine the necessary scope of remediation and reclamation of Arctic soils.
The joint project of Rosneft Oil Company and the Russian Arctic National Park will be a reasonable follow-up of the works to eliminate the environmental damage performed from 2012 through 2017 on the Franz Josef Land islands and within the national park on Novaya Zemlya.
Note for Editors:
Rosneft is the one of the Arctic development leaders. The Company’s asset portfolio includes 28 offshore areas in the Eastern and Western Arctic. Rosneft is fulfilling its licence obligations at these sites and geological studies are in progress. For the last seven years, the Company has organised more than 20 large-scale complex scientific research expeditions that collected an amount of unique scientific data of the Arctic region.
The Company is engaged in a biodiversity conservation programme in one of the world’s most valuable natural regions, the Arctic.
Within their partnership, Rosneft and the Russian Arctic National Park have supported the implementation of the project on the creation of the alternative power supply system for the team base located in the protected and environmentally vulnerable natural area near Cape Zhelaniya of Severny Island in Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The project will contribute to the successful solution of the Russian Arctic National Park’s issues in the preservation of natural systems and objects of special ecological and historical value.
The Russian Arctic National Park was founded in 2009. It is the largest Arctic national park in the world, with the area of 8.8 million hectares. It includes two clusters, the Southern (the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya archipelago with neighbouring islands) and the Northern (Franz Josef Land archipelago). There are seven red-listed species inhabiting the Russian Arctic park area: a polar bear, an Arctic whale, a narwhal, an ivory gull, and others.
Rosneft
Information Division
Phone: + 7 (499) 517-88-97
October 31, 2019