Disaster in Okhotsk Sea highlights poor regulatory practices in Russian oil industry
Russia’s Kolskaya gas drilling platform sank approximately 200 miles off the coast of Sakhalin Island in the Okhotsk Sea on Saturday after completing an exploratory well on the Western Kamchatka Shelf. At least 16 crew members are dead and another 38 are still missing. Miraculously, 14 people were rescued from the freezing water. Environmental damage is expected to be minimal, as the platform’s fuel remains stored in hermetically sealed containers.
Russian media is already reporting that the towing operation, conducted in heavy seas during the winter storm season without sufficient safety equipment, violated several laws and safety protocols. A criminal investigation has already begun. Meanwhile, a damning video from a local news station in Murmansk (the home city for many of the Kolskaya’s crew) shows relatives of the missing captain and safety officer explaining that both men had unsuccessfully lobbied their superiors to delay the operation to avoid the Okhotsk Sea’s famously powerful storms.
This is not the first time that the Kolskaya rig, owned by Gazflot, a subsidiary of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, has encountered legal troubles. Last summer, the Kamchatka League of Independent Experts, a Pacific Environment partner, completed a public environmental impact assessment of Gazflot’s drilling plans for the Western Kamchatka Shelf, finding severe shortcomings in the project’s safety protocols and emergency response measures. The League submitted this information to the state environmental assessment review board, which gave the project a negative review, requiring the company to update its project plans and resubmit them for a second review. But Gazflot flagrantly violated the law by drilling anyway, resulting in an outcry from fishing industry organizations and environmental groups, and an eventual investigation by Kamchatka’s prosecutor.
The sinking of the Kolsakaya, like most oil industry tragedies, was completely preventable. Gazflot had been heavily criticized throughout the summer and autumn for its illegal practices, but Russia’s massive regulatory bureaucracy, mired down by corruption, never forced the company to change. And the platform’s own captain was rebuffed when he refuse to lead the doomed towing operation. Russian authorities have recently assured the world that they will use the best available technology to expand offshore drilling activity in the Russian Arctic. But again we have proof that even the most modern technology is no match for the harsh weather and high seas in the world’s most inhospitable regions. Until Russia has modernized both its drilling fleet and its bloated and outdated regulatory bureaucracy, it must expect disasters like the Kolskaya, or worse, to occur with greater frequency.
