Oil disaster threatens Arctic area

Russian industry was under attack for its poor environmental record yesterday after an oil spill in the Arctic republic of Komi contaminated two rivers and a large area of tundra. Estimates of the scale of the disaster varied greatly. American experts said that up to 270,000 tons may have been spilt - making it the world's third largest oil accident. But authorities in Komi put it at only 14,000 tons.

The spill appears to have occurred in two stages. On 17 August, a 20-year-old pipeline carrying oil from Komi to refineries in central Russia ruptured and leaked oil into the Kolva and Usa rivers. These are tributaries of the Pechora, a salmon-spawning river which is 1,120 miles long and empties into the Bay of Pechora near the Barents Sea.

The oil company Komineft built a 25ft-high earth dam to contain the first spill, but on 1 October heavy rains washed this away. More oil spilled into the two tributaries and, even though another dam was built, Komi nature protection groups said that the Pechora had been contaminated and the Barents Sea could be threatened.

Russia's Minister for Emergencies, Sergei Shoigu, denied that the Pechora basin had been polluted but said the spill had caused 62.2bn roubles ( pounds 13.1m) worth of damage. Valery Markov, a scientist from Komi, said the damaged pipeline should have been replaced as early as 1990. 'The oil has spread over a very wide area, through villages and other inhabited places,' he added.

Western oilmen in the Komi area likened the slick to a giant ribbon, six miles long, 12 yards wide and three feet deep. The Russian embassy in Washington said emergency teams had stopped clean-up work on 18 October because of snow and sub-zero temperatures.

The three rivers are likely to freeze in early November, and officials in Komi suggested on Tuesday that the clean-up could not be completed until next April. However, more decisive measures are expected after senior Russian government officials flew to the region yesterday to take control.

Ordinary Russians received little word of the spill until Tuesday, by which time the news had spread across Western countries.

'Sadly, it has become customary for reports on our ecological disasters to come from the West,' said the Moscow newspaper Segodnya, referring to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe and other accidents.

Oil exports represent Russia's biggest source of hard currency, but the industry has experienced serious maintenance problems. Environmental authorities lack money, equipment and legal powers and are often ineffective in ensuring that Russia's oil companies maintain standards.

Komi oil chiefs insisted in August that the damaged pipeline should continue operating, even though there were 23 holes in it. Such decisions are normal in Russia, where up to 10 per cent of annual oil output is lost in pipeline accidents, but it would violate Western rules.

The US Deputy Energy Secretary, Bill White, said the pipeline had leaked oil since February. A videotape, received by the US Energy Department this week, shows burning oil on the Kolva. Mr White said Komi authorities appeared to have set the oil on fire. About 17,200 sq yards of tundra, a vast zone of permanently frozen subsoil, which is host to a great variety of animals and plants, has also been contaminated.