OREANDA-NEWS. On World Environmental Day, the OAO LUKOIL Industrial Safety and Environment Department and a number of the Company’s employees were awarded with diplomas and badges of merit by the non-governmental V.I.Vernadsky Ecological Foundation.

These awards proved once again the efficiency of LUKOIL’s corporate environmental policy, highly praised time and again by independent experts, rating agencies and public organizations alike.

During the 1990s, the Company developed and introduced the “zero discharge” technology for offshore field development. In 2001, LUKOIL was the first Russian company in the fuel and energy sector to receive the international ISO 14001 compliance certificate as part of the Eco-Management System. In 2008, LUKOIL joined the UN Global Compact. As part of this agreement, the Company participates in a number of environmental projects, including those aimed at conservation of biodiversity. The company also joined the Green Office Program sponsored by Greenpeace.

LUKOIL allocates about RUR 20 billion to environmental protection on an annual basis. As for individual projects, the environmental share in the total investments comes to 15%. Implementation of the corporate environmental policy results in considerable annual mitigation of environmental impact. The overall budget of the environmental measures implemented by the Company in 2013 exceeds RUR 25 billion. Currently, the Company is about to complete development of the next Corporate Environmental Safety Program, for 2014-2018. This Program will be presented to the general public in all regions of LUKOIL’s presence within Russia.

Today, all of LUKOIL’s subsidiaries have participated in a nation-wide campaign called “Zero Environmental Impact”. As a result of this campaign, operation of certain production facilities was temporarily suspended and thousands of trees were planted, while the Company’s employees did not use their private cars.