Two officials from the company responsible for an enormous oil spill in the Komi region of Northern Siberia called the spill's damage "shocking" Wednesday, but said a massive cleanup effort had prevented the oil from causing even more harm.


Also Wednesday a second government commission flew to the Komineft pipeline to investigate what was described in the West as catastrophic damage, even as Russian oil officials continued to insist that reports on the disaster were widely exaggerated.


Both the Emergency Situations Ministry and the Ecology Ministry dispatched teams to investigate the extent of the damage of the month-old spill, situated near the town of Usinsk in Russia's Arctic region.


Official Russian reports placed the size of the spill at somewhere between 14,000 and 60,000 tons, but a statement from the U.S. Department of Energy said the figure may be as high as 250,000 tons -- roughly eight times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil disaster.


"Any normal person who saw something like this would be shocked," said one Komineft official, who did not want to be named.


He and another Komineft employee, who also requested anonymity, said "everyone but the bookkeeper" was sent to clean up after the spill. Company employees formed teams of 30, each of v which scrubbed 1.5-kilometer swaths of the Kolva River's banks, polluted by oil flowing from a nearby swamp.


Inflatable booms lowered into the Kolva prevented the oil from flowing into the Usa River, which in turn feeds the Pechora, a major river that flows into the Barents Sea. Some Western groups, however, worry that the Pechora was already polluted.


Work stopped on about Oct. 20, when freezing weather and snow precluded further efforts. The two Komineft employees said about 80 to 90 percent of the cleanup had been finished by then. They were both on a plane from Moscow to the Komi region Wednesday, and had been on site at the oil spill as recently as Monday.


Tatyana Kersanova, a spokesperson for the Usinsk Nature Preservation Committee, also said the work to remove oil from the water and river banks was near completion. "People here are naturally very worried, but the cleanup seems to be working," she said.


In Moscow, however, some officials remained adamant that nothing serious had ever taken place.


"Nothing horrible ever happened, no emergency situation ever occurred," said Sergei Slesarev, a spokesman for the Fuel and Energy Ministry. "You want us to tell you that something happened, and that we covered it up, but I can't help you with that."


Spokesman Karl Smolikov of the Emergency Situations Ministry said a four-person group from his ministry flew to Usinsk on Wednesday.


"We've known about this accident since the beginning of the month, but we were told by regional officials that everything was under control," Smolikov said. "The group was formed after we heard the reports in the Western press. We need to go to find out who's at fault."


Ecology Ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Shuvalov added that a four-person commission left for the area Tuesday. The trip had been planned since the end of last week, he said.


Both Westerners and Russians acknowledge that the source of the spill is a 26-kilometer stretch of pipeline belonging to the Russian Komineft oil concern. A 7- meter earthen dam, built in August to contain leaking oil, collapsed after rains at the end of September.


Natalya Rubanova, a Komineft spokesperson, denied U.S. allegations that 2 million barrels, or 250,000 tons, of oil had spilled out over the delicate Arctic tundra, soaking the permafrost and flowing into the Kolva and Usa rivers.


"It's a lie from beginning to end," she said, defending her company's response. "We want to know who is spreading this information."


Approximately 150 Komineft employees were in the field cleaning up the oil, Rubanova said. A completely new pipe should be in place by December, she said, adding that work had "started before the accident, not because of it."


A Komineft worker said erosion in the pipeline is caused by a sulfur compound that settles at the bottom of the pipe. He said Komineft was pleading poverty in its efforts to maintain the unlined pipes, and had not paid salaries since April. He said there have been hunger strikes over the lack of payments.


Yelena Suravikinom, of Greenpeace's Moscow office, said Komineft should be able to maintain its pipes more effectively. "Oil companies are the one business in Russia making a profit," she said. "They are the ones who have money to spend on repairs and upkeep."


Even if the spill does not surpass the Exxon Valdez accident, it will prove a major disaster.


"Even the smaller estimate of 14,000 is about 40 percent of the Exxon Valdez spill, and that's a significant amount of oil," said Lisa Speer of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group. "Arctic environments tend to be much more sensitive" than others.





-- Sander Thoenes contributed to this article.