SPbU’s scientists: Pollution control in areas for oil and gas exploration
SPbU’s scientists are working on innovation solutions in ecological monitoring of oil and gas producing areas in the north regions in Russia. The research project is supported by a joint grant programme of RGO and RFBR. SPbU’s ecologists have already completed the first part of the field works in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district.
Assessment of landscape pollution levels and dynamics due to manufacturing is an overarching priority in ecology. The research focuses on engineering, ecology, and ecological monitoring. Our authorities have introduced permanent stations to control pollution in those areas which are prone to pollution. The north regions, as they explore and transport oil products, are particularly interested in these monitoring networks.
Today, however, the organization responsible for manufacturing ecological monitoring is encountering severe imbalances in data quality. It can be explained by a lack of a single monitoring technique, SPbU’s scientists says. “The current methods, techniques and procedures proved to be ineffective, — said SPbU’s Prof and Head of the Project Marina Opekunova. — If you use the current techniques, you cannot identify a slight, though stable trend in ecological changes due to technogenesis. As a result, you cannot predict environmental changes to make management decisions in a particular environment conditions. Thus, monitoring as such is non-sense”.
SPbU’s scientists, who work in the project “Development of the innovation solutions in optimization and unification of the ecological monitoring of the oil and gas producing areas in the north regions in Russia”, have just returned from Yamal-Nenets autonomous district, where they carried out geo-ecological research in the area of the oil and gas condensate deposits.
“We have studied terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the following areas: Tazovsko-Zapolyarny, Beregovoy, Pyreyny, Khadyryakhinsky, Parusovy, North-parusovy, and South-Parusovy, — said Marina Opekunova. — We carried out painstaking research, collected water samples, bottom sediments, soil, and plants for chemical testing. Besides, our group worked on the ecological monitoring techniques”.
SPbU’s research is just the beginning of the massive project for three years, which will bring innovation solutions in unification, quality improvement and data validity in manufacturing ecological monitoring in oil and gas producing areas in the northern regions in Russia. The research finding can be also used to enlarge data of the Unified State Fund of the data on environment and its pollution.