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Russia’s Deputy PM orders inspection of oil terminal operators

Victoria Abramchenko requested environmental and technical watchdogs to inspect the operators of seaport terminals performing the throughput of petroleum products in terms of readiness to respond to oil spills

MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko ordered Russia’s environmental and technical watchdogs to audit the operators of seaport terminals dealing with the throughput of petroleum products, according to documents assigned to the agencies seen by TASS.

"I request to organize and hold with the participation of interested persons of federal executive authorities within the competence framework the inspection of operations of operators of seaport terminals performing the throughput of petroleum products in seaports, including in terms of readiness to respond to oil spills," the document says.

Abramchenko earlier instructed the Federal Service for the Supervision of Natural Resources to assess the actual scale of the oil spill near Novorossiysk during loading from the terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) and check information from the Russian Academy of Sciences about the understatement of spill quantities.

The oil spill near Novorossiysk was reported on August 7. According to CPC, the spill area was about 200 sq m and the spilled oil volume reached around 12 cubic meters. Later, the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated the oil slick at almost 80 sq km based on satellite images.

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