OREANDA-NEWS. Caspian Pipeline Consortium and Krasnodar Krai Office of the Ministry of Emergencies (MChS) conducted a joint drill to exercise oil spill response operations in Kavkazsky District (Krasnodar Krai).

According to the drill scenario, on June 5 in the morning a CPC dispatcher saw a steady pressure drop in the pipeline system at the Chelbas river crossing nearby the farmstead of Privolny (KP 1215), which was followed by the pump station shutdown, this pipeline cutoff and CPC Management Team emergency notification. Security patrol and ERS vehicles left for the site of emergency and found the cause of this emergency - an illegal tap, through which some of crude got accumulated on the ground and some run into the river via a natural ground fold. There was a threat of fire spread caused by oil ignition.

The simulated emergency was eliminated by CPC-R and MChS available resources with involvement of the Center for Emergency Response, Rescue and Environmental Operations, regional units of the RF emergency prevention and response system, environmental agencies and disaster medicine service. Local volunteers were mobilized for shoreline clean-up. In total, 136 individuals and 44 special vehicles participated in the drill.

The simulated emergency response included containment of spilled oil, simulated fire-fighting, installation of booms offshore and oil collection tanks ashore, environmental operations and restoration of trunk pipeline integrity.

Drills are conducted on a regular basis along the pipeline route to exercise the interaction of CPC, MChS and all contractors in protection of local population and environment from emergencies. It is an integral part of CPC HSE Policy, which main objective is to reduce the man-caused environmental impact to the maximum extent possible and to comply with environmental and sanitary legislation of Russia and Kazakhstan.

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.