OREANDA-NEWS. September 25, 2008. TNK-BP, the third largest oil company in Russia, is trying to expand its activities to new regions. Recently, the company purchased three licenses for development of fields in the Astrakhan Region. Total investments into exploration and commercial development of these fields will exceed US1.8 billion, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

Two of these three license areas – Vatazhny Severny and Kirillinsky – are in the highly sensitive estuary of the Volga River. For this reason, comprehensive and thorough ecological support of all works in these areas and cooperation with all concerned parties at all stages of works have become key points in preparation of the project. In 2007, according to the license requirements, the current background state of environment was assessed and a program of exploration and evaluation works in the subsoil plot was developed and approved in accordance with the established procedure.

In 2008, the company developed environment and subsoil monitoring programs and projects of seismic surveys, including environmental impact assessment. Public hearings were started for discussing the results and materials of environmental impact assessment.

From the early stages of project development, TNK-BP is actively cooperating with the environmentally conscientious public. Ecological landscape mapping of the Volga estuary in the license areas is being accomplished now by nongovernmental ecological organizations with the financial support of TNK-BP. The purpose of these works is assessing the extent of anthropogenic disturbance of different areas and subsequent construction of an interactive map based on interpretation of aerial photographs. The results of these works will be part of environmental impact assessment open for consultations with concerned parties.

According to the results of environmental impact assessment and discussions with nongovernmental ecological organizations, seismic surveys in the estuary are scheduled to winter for minimizing the possible damage that might be inflicted to various representatives of wildlife.

These seismic exploration works will be performed by the Orenburg Geophysical Surveying Company using the currently ecologically safest common depth point method based on vibration surveys without explosions. The results of two-dimensional (2D) seismic surveys will be used for determining the further field development strategy.