Energy & Science
Arctic Miner Rejects $2.1 Billion Fuel Spill Charge
- Miner says watchdog used wrong metrics for defining damage
- Ministry for Natural Resources stands by watchdog estimate
Workers take part in a clean-up operation following a fuel spill in the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk on June 10.
Photographer: Irina Yarinskaya/AFP via Getty Images
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MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC said it disagreed with a Russian watchdog’s 148 billion-ruble ($2.1 billion) estimate of the damage caused by a fuel spill from one of its storage tanks in the Arctic.
The Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources, known as Rosprirodnadzor, used the highest damage coefficient, which assumes the company did nothing to mitigate the impact of the spill, Nornickel said. That isn’t correct, said the miner, which called in a specialist clean-up team from Murmansk after the accident.