World Student Community for Sustainable Development

by Mikhail Kalyabin

Russia is one of the world’s leading oil-producing countries. Much of the oil is drilled in remote regions of Siberia and Bashkiria or from shelf deposits. To get the oil to oil-importing countries, it is pipelined or transported by trucks and river tankers to sea ports and loaded in supertankers. This movement of oil across the country increases the probability of oil contamination of Russian waterways and coastal areas. In response to this problem, the port city of St. Petersburg has developed an innovative system to minimize the threat of oil pollution – a system from which other cities should learn.

With a population of five million, St. Petersburg is the second-largest city in Russia and an important industrial, cultural, and educational centre. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great at the mouth of the Neva River on the Baltic Sea. St. Petersburg has become a major transportation hub for the oil industry. In 2003, 5892 ships, including 2521 tankers and oil barges, travelled on the Neva River. In total, about 5.05 million tons of oil and oil products passed through the St. Petersburg port. This quantity includes both oil for export and diesel oil for ship refuelling.

Oil can enter waterways by several means. Some examples include oil-transfer failures, runoff of oil-containing wastewater from riverside industrial areas, pipeline damage near and around rivers, and shipwrecks. Oil spills are dangerous to the environment, people, and property values on the banks of the Neva. In addition, oil spills damage marine resources when they are carried by currents into the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea.

One particularly important danger is the widespread use of single-hulled oil tankers such as the Prestige. In November 2002, the Prestige was carrying Russian heavy fuel oil from St. Petersburg to Singapore. While on its way to Gibraltar, this 26-year-old tanker was severely damaged in a storm and began leaking oil. Thick, tar-like oil leaked from the Prestige and washed up on beaches on stretches of France’s Atlantic coast and over a large area of northern Spain, devastating some of Spainâ€^TMs prime fishing grounds. Unfortunately, despite the obvious risks, the Russian government opposes a proposed ban of single-hulled oil tankers in the Baltic Sea, because this class of ship is the base of the Russian tanker fleet.

Local authorities have responded to this problem by creating several organizations to help prevent and clean up oil contamination. PILARN (the National Unitary Enterprise, or NUE, Prevention and Liquidation of Emergency Oil Spills), ECER (the NUE Engineering Center of Ecological Works), and the NUE Lenvodhoz are subordinate to the city authorities. In addition, the Sea Port Administration founded BBASU (the NUE Baltic Basin Emergency Office). PILARN and BBASU conduct water pollution monitoring and clean up oil spills from navigable waterways, Lenvodhoz cleans up small rivers, and ECER cleans up the banks of the Neva and small, unnavigable rivers.

Each agency, according to its mandate, uses different equipment. PILARN uses ten vessels, including a speedboat, three cutters, four oil-spill boats, a towboat, and a purifying floating station. These vessels are fitted with harbor boom installation devices, pendant or board oil skimmers, and oil gathering sorbent. BBASU has eight vessels and four barges, which are equipped similarly. The oil skimmers use different principles of operation like threshold, oleophilic (brush), and vacuum pump methods. The skimmers weigh between 22 kilograms and 11 tons. Lenvodhoz is equipped with three light boats, two sludge-gathering boats, and oil gathering sorbent. ECER has a special boat and a variety of small-scale mechanization devices. The oil spill defense system also includes two ultraviolet LIDAR (light detection and ranging) observation devices, which are placed on bridges and accompanied by special telephone numbers for people to call to report oil contamination. The LIDAR units help to decrease reaction time and thereby minimize damage from oil contamination.

During 2003, these organizations jointly removed 37 tons of oily mixture from local water bodies. Another 10 tons of oil products and 4 tons of oil-contaminated soil were gathered from land.

St. Petersburg’s oil spill defense system is the first in Russia. The system is continuously improving as new ships are designed and as new means of fighting oil spills are discovered. Given St. Petersburg’s success, other Russian ports should consider adopting similar systems.

- Mikhail Kalyabin, Department of Environmental Safety Information Systems, St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russia; member of St. Petersburg Students for Sustainability