OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2008. Tatneft has once again become the holder of the Great Cup of the absolute ECO Leader  in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The IV-th Environmental Forum timed to the 15-th anniversary of establishing the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan and to the World's Day of the environment protection was held in the NCC (Natural Cultural Center) "Kazan" on June 5. The ceremony of awarding the winners of the annual Republican contest "ECO Leader" has been held in the framework of the Forum. More than 400 environmental projects developed by industrial enterprises and organizations of the Republic have been submitted to the competition.

Addressing the participants of the Forum with a welcoming speech Rustam Minnikhanov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, said that "today it is time to toll all the bells, to perform environmental work steadily, to develop more effective measures for protecting the environment."

Rustam Minnikhanov handed the main competition award, a challenge ECO Leader Cup and honorary Winner Diploma to the representative of OAO TATNEFT Rustam Mukhamadeev, Deputy General Director of OAO TATNEFT.

Receiving the award Rustam Mukhamadeev emphasized that "ecology is currently one of the global and vital topics of the modern world and it requires a greater attention not only from ministries and agencies, industrial enterprises, but from the whole community and every human being."

Tatneft has been recognized as the winner in the nomination "The introduction of technologies for the collection and recycling of recoverable resources" among the first group of enterprises and the winner in the category "Efficient environmental policy." The award has been received by Ravil Gareev, Head of Environment and Nature Protection Department of Tatneft.

The journalistic contest "Man and Nature" results were summarized on the same day. This competition had been arranged by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Union of Journalists of the Republic of Tatarstan for the media. The corporate newspaper "Neftyanye Vesti (Oil News)" were awarded the first place in the group of corporate media in the category "Best publication in periodic publications in the periodicals". The diploma of the winner in the category "Best TV Feature" was awarded to corporate TV Studio "Time of Tatneft".

These awards have become another vivid proof of the scale and quality of work carried out by OAO TATNEFT in the field of nature conservation and environmental activities.