Rosneft and the Russian Arctic National Park launched the third stage of the comprehensive project Clean Arctic to study the impact of economic activities on Arctic ecosystems. An expedition of specialists from the park and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences departed from Arkhangelsk on July 30 for the Franz Josef Land archipelago islands to continue the work within the framework of the project.
The comprehensive programme for studying the external interferences on the Arctic ecosystem is being implemented for the first time in Russia. Assessing the scale and analysis of pollution in the reserve archipelago during Soviet times is one of the key tasks of scientists. Soil and ground pollution remained in places where fuel and lubricants were stored, which were brought to the region in large quantities to support the work of scientific, meteorological bases, and military facilities.
Environment protection is an integral part of the Company’s corporate culture and operations. To achieve the best performance in this area, Rosneft is constantly improving its approaches to environmental management, increasing the scale of environmental measures and green investments.
Experts will take soil samples on Alexandra and Hayes Land islands during the new expedition and use microbiological research to analyze the dynamics and nature of changes occurring in the polluted areas. The results of the selected sites monitoring, which has been carried out since 2019 with the Rosneft support, allow us today to draw conclusions about the possibility of self-purification of the Arctic ecosystems. Native microorganisms found on the islands that decompose petroleum products play a key role here.
The joint project of Rosneft and the Russian Arctic National Park is a follow-up of the works to eliminate the Soviet environmental damage performed from 2012 through 2017 on the Franz Josef Land islands and within the national park on Novaya Zemlya.
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