Four oil production companies in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district have received fines totaling 9.7 million rubles ($312,000) for flaring too much natural gas during their extraction activities, the local division of the federal environmental watchdog said Wednesday.
Onsite inspections determined that Gazpromneft-Noyabrskneftegaz, Zapolyarneft, Yangpur and Ritek were underutilizing associated petroleum gas, or APG, at the levels stipulated in their licensing agreements, Interfax reported.
Yangpur's APG utilization rate was just 17.3 percent compared with the stipulated target of 95 percent. The fines were issued for violation of the part of the Administrative Code that addresses irrational use of subsurface resource deposits resulting in abnormally high waste during extraction.
The watchdog issued 6 million rubles in fines in April for flaring APG. Zapolyarneft was fined 1.6 million rubles and Yangpur 1.1 million rubles. Gazpromneft-Noyabrskneftegaz is the core production subsidiary of Gazprom Neft which owns 98 percent of shares. It is also the largest oil producer in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district. Zapolyarneft is a subsidiary of Gazpromneft-Noyabrskneftegaz. Ritek is a subsidiary of LUKoil and Yangpur is a subsidiary of Tekhneftinvest.
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