OREANDA-NEWS. On October 30th Caspian Pipeline Consortium together with the Astrakhan Oblast Main Department of Russia MChS conducted an oil spill response drill in Yenotaevsky District, Astrakhan Oblast, at KP 572 of Tengiz-Novorossiysk trunk crude pipeline.

The hypothetical accident on the section located 6 km away from Astrakhan Pump Station was eliminated by the Consortium's organic emergency response resources with participation of the Center for Emergency Response/Rescue and Environmental Operations (TsASEO), RSChS Territorial subsystem, environmental authorities and Center of Emergency Medicine of Astrakhan Oblast. Over 200 persons and various types of specialized equipment were involved in the activities.

According to the drill scenario the trunk pipeline break resulted in an oil spill which caused a threat of contamination of a significant territory adjacent to the crude pipeline. Response to the staged accident included oil spill containment, hypothetical firefighting, installation of protection walls and deployment of tanks, and also operation and environmental activities and restoring the trunk crude pipeline integrity. Local community volunteers were involved in contaminated soil cleaning work.

Summing up the drill results, Dennis Fahy, First Deputy General Director, Operations, CPC-R, noted: “Commitment to rigid standards of operation safety and environmental protection is part of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium policy. Today thanks to the well-coordinated teamwork of the Company staff, MChS and all our contractors we again satisfy ourselves that effective measures are in place to protect the communities and environment in the unlikely event of an emergency”.

CPC pipeline system is one of the largest investment projects in the energy industry with participation of foreign capital on the CIS territory. The length of the pipeline connecting the oil fields in Western Kazakhstan with the Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk is 1,511 km. CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with single point moorings which allow for safe tanker lifting at a considerable distance from the shore, also when the weather conditions are unfavorable.