OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2008. The Russian State Duma witnessed a solemn ceremony of awarding the laureates of the "EcoMir" (EcoWorld) National Environmental Prize for the year 2008 held in Moscow. The prize established by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the Regional Public Organization "Charitable Initiatives Foundation" is the top ecological public award in the country. The forum was attended by prominent Russian scientists and public figures, representatives of domestic and international public organizations; business communities and mass media.

OAO TATNEFT was among the winners for the third consecutive year and it was awarded  the 1st degree title of EkoMir prize in the category "Environmental policy ".

This award is the result of the Company's ambitious multi-year activity on the environmental improvement, the application of environmentally sound technologies in oil production. Currently, the Company operates in the territory of 21 administrative districts of the Republic and fully realizes the extent of its liability for environmental security of the region. The execution of the third consecutive environmental program calculated until 2015 is on the way in Tatneft. It provides for environmental protection activities in 34 fields aimed at improving the atmosphere, water facilities, land and forest resources.

The company developed and implemented the technology of hydrocarbon vapor recovery allowing a 4-fold reduction of hydrocarbon vapor emissions into the atmosphere. At present there are 42 vapor recovery units (VRU) operating at our field production facilities and they greatly improved the air status in the oil regions of the Republic.

Over two hundred motor vehicles were equipped with cylinder gas equipment last year in order to further reduce emissions from motor vehicles working in Tatneft. The company has withdrawn more than 2 thousand units of automotive and specialized vehicles from the city of Almetyevsk over the past 5 years.

The associated petroleum gas, which used to be flared earlier, is almost completely processed nowadays. The petroleum gas utilization factor at Tatneft is one of the highest in the industry and it amounts to 93-95%.

Upon the whole the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere has declined three and a half times over the past 20 years.

A lot of work has been performed to improve reliability of the entire TATNEFT's system of pipelines. The Company has developed pipe corrosion protection technologies, established production facilities for manufacturing of pipes with corrosion-resistant coating. As a result, pipeline raptures in the formation pressure maintenance system due to corrosion have been reduced over 30 times and the failures in the oil gathering system have been reduced almost 10-fold.

In general, Tatneft has spent over 28 billion rubles from different funding sources for the environment protection over the past 7 years.

Currently, the Company's system of environmental management and management of professional health and safety has been certified by in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 international standard and OHSAS 18001:1999 specifications. The certification has been made by BVQI Company (Bureau Veritas Quality International): Bureau Veritas Certification at present.