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Kolskaya rig disaster shows offshore projects require outpacing security measures

Technogenic disasters like the loss of the Kolskaya drilling rig will keep happening in Russia on
Screenshot Russia-24
Screenshot Russia-24

MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Technogenic disasters like the loss of the Kolskaya drilling rig will keep happening in Russia on and on, if all security requirements fail to be observed to the letter, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a meeting of the Maritime Collegium on Wednesday.

“The Kolskaya rig disaster has shown that the development of off-shore oil and gas fields involves high technogenic risks and requires an outpacing approach to security matters, and not just an adequate attitude,” he said. “There should be no place for carelessness, laxity, sloppiness and attempts to ignore the existing rules.”

Ivanov said that in the transport industry “security should be on top of everything else, while profits and gains must take second place.”

“As long as this continues to be ignored, there will be problems like the sinking of the Bulgaria cruise ship and Kolskaya drilling rig,” Ivanov said. “These rules are written with blood, and they are to be strictly complied with.”

The deputy prime minister said just one breakdown of a super oil tanker would be enough to ruin the Arctic’s irrecoverable biological resources once and for all. He recalled the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

“True, our counterparts have gained invaluable experience, but God forbid if someone ever has to use that experience,” he remarked.