SOCAR approves plan to warn and eliminate oil spills
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has approved a plan for warning and eliminating oil spills.
In the near future, SOCAR will assess the technical condition of the facilities, which have a high probability of oil spills. It will also evaluate existing capacities to respond in case of oil spills.
Mechanisms and specific effective measures will be adopted for the plan's implementation and prevention of oil spills to carry out environmental restoration.
The plan approved on September 3 also envisages organizing a system of cosmic monitoring.
Rich with natural resources, the Caspian Sea acts as a transit route for exporting oil products. Production increases every year, new wells are put into operation and transit grows. All these factors increase the importance of security issue in the Caspian Sea for the littoral states.
Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad.
Prevention of oil spills and fight against such problems during exploration of oil and gas fields, production, processing and transportation of oil are among the main priorities of the company.
Last year, SOCAR established a working group to manage processes on sending warning about spill of oil and oil products and their elimination under the Emergency Situations Commission of the company.
Also, the Azerbaijani Emergency Situations Ministry is involved in tackling any kind of emergency accidents at sea. Elimination of accidents involving oil spills or fires and other emergencies at sea is the direct responsibility of the ministry.
The ministry has been increasing the skills of its employees each year, making use of BP's experiences and organizing joint training and exercises with Russian and Kazakh specialists.