Oil Response Barge Wrecked on Sakhalin Coast

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia, September 23, 2004 (ENS) - A Russian oil spill response barge that was helping to deal with a Belgian shipwreck on southwestern Sakhalin Island has itself run aground.

The barge, towed from the Sakhalin port of Korsakov, was supposed to help refloat the Belgian dredger Christopher Columbus by taking off heavy equipment, but it fell victim to a storm in the Tatar Strait on Tuesday. The barge is stranded about four kilometers north of the dredger.

The barge belongs to the Sakhalin Basin Emergency Salvage Department (SakhBASU), the section of the Sakhalin Ministry of Transport that manages oil spill response for Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. It had no oil aboard and there is no danger of a second spill.

Satellite view of the Sea of Okhotsk (Photo courtesy SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE)

The dredger broke away from its anchor and ran aground at Kholmsk, spilling about 70 tons of diesel and heavy fuel oil into the sea from ruptured fuel tanks.

Sakhalin Energy is the Shell-led operating company that is developing a $10 billion integrated oil and gas operation in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Sakhalin Energy Communications Manager Julian Barnes says 70 tons is a more accurate figure than the 100 ton spill the company first estimated had occurred.

"When incidents like this happen, it is not that easy to get accurate data immediately," Barnes said in an interview. "Until you can actually dip and measure the amount of water in the bottom of those tanks, you can't get an accurate estimate. Now we've been able to make a more detailed study of what was in those tanks."

Some of the fuel spilled on September 8 reached the public beach area in Kholmsk, according to Sakhalin Energy. Thirty-five people went to Kholmsk hospitals for help and were diagnosed as slightly ill. Barnes says they suffered the effects of breathing the petroleum fumes from the spill and "no one was seriously injured."

According to local environmentalists from Sakhalin Environment Watch the contaminated area is just 300 meters from local residences.

A helicopter flyover on September 12 with representatives of Sakhalin Energy, Emercom, the Ministry of Natural Resources and EcoShelf revealed that a sheen about 7.5 kilometres long and 10 to 50 metres wide was moving north from Kolmsk. Barnes said the lightweight diesel quickly evaporated, and a fly-over later that day found that the sheen had dissipated.

Primary cleanup operations are now virtually completed, Barnes said. "The beach area that was impacted has been restored, cleaned, reinstated, and refurbished, and looks better than it did before the incident," he said.

All the contaminated gravel, soil and sand has been removed and replaced with new sand, and in the process three old car bodies, many truck tires, rubbish and plastic was removed from the beach at Kolmsk.

Sakhalin Island shore Sea of Okhotsk (Photo courtesy Sakhalin Energy)

The prosecutor's office is pressing criminal charges for "pollution of the sea." Part of the case will probe into the effect of the oil spill on the area's wildlife and their habitat.

Barnes says Sakhalin Energy has seen no affected wildlife or fish impacted by the spill.

The population of critically endangered gray whales that frequent Sakhalin waters are nowhere near the area of the spill, he said.

Still, environmentalists with Sakhalin Environment Watch, WWF, and the California based Pacific Environment & Resources Center have warned for years that oil spill response in the Sea of Okhotsk was not adequate and that a major spill might contaminate the biologically rich area.

WWF believes that Sakhalin Energy is responsible for this accident and despite pressure from environmental groups, including WWF, they have failed to guarantee that its activities do not cause harm to the environment.

"This is a shot across the bow, which shows what is to come if oil extraction is allowed to go ahead in the area," said James Leaton WWF-UK's Extractive Industries Policy Officer.