OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2010. TNK-BP is planning to spend more than USD 20 million till 2014 for implementation of environmental projects at the Saratov Oil Refinery to reduce environmental pollution, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

The environmental protection program of the Saratov Oil Refinery was presented by Alexander Romanov, General Director of OJSC Saratov Oil Refinery (incorporated into the TNK-BP Group), at a meeting with the Saratov Region Administration.

The meeting dedicated to state environmental control over reclamation of lands contaminated by oil and oil products emphasized the positive experience of TNK-BP in implementation of its corporate program for elimination of its historical legacy at the Saratov Oil Refinery.

The refinery is conducting continuous environmental monitoring, and its accredited sanitary laboratory carried out more than 50,000 tests every year. According to the results of latest studies, the area of lands contaminated with oil products by the refinery in 2003–2009 has decreased by more than twice and currently does not exceed 2% of the entire territory of the refinery.

“The Saratov Oil Refinery was built in 1934. The refinery is now actively getting rid of its negative legacy of the previous decades. This fact once again points to the fact that TNK-BP is a good example of socially responsible business with high priority of environmental aspects,” said Alexander Strelyukhin, Deputy Chair man of the Saratov Region Administration.

The development program of the Saratov Oil Refinery includes five projects; the largest one is reconstruction of a rail loading for dark oil products, completion of which is scheduled for November 2010.

TNK-BP is also going to allocated 600 mln rubles for implementation of three environmental protection projects – Reconstruction of treatment facilities, Expansion of the intercepting drainage system, and Reclamation of lands.

Apart from that, the company is implementing a project for equipment of oil and gasoline storage tanks with pontoons which will be completed in 2011 and reduce atmospheric emissions by more than 2,000 tons a year.

Recently, 4 oil pits and 2 sludge collectors were eliminated from the territory of the oil refinery and an emergency waste sump and an oil trap were put into operation, which reduced atmospheric emissions by over 3,000 tons a year. A special drainage system approximately 4 km long was built on the territory of Saratov Oil Refinery and Uvek Oil Depot, which protects the river Volga from contaminated ground waters.