Transneft Kama Region held drills on elimination of oil leakage to the surface in ice-covered UW crossing

Transneft Kama Region says it held large-scale drills on eliminating a conventional oil leakage to the surface at Volga river. The emergency response drill (ERD) was carried out at sections of underwater crossings in the Almetievsk – Gorky-2 and Almetievsk – Gorky-3 oil trunk pipelines in the responsibility area of the Kazan Regional Oil Pipeline Directorate (RPD).
The ERD brought together professionals from emergency maintenance divisions of Kovali, Tingovatovo, and Studenets pump stations (PS), and specialists of Kazan RPD’s central maintenance division (CMD), overall, 90 persons and 15 vehicles.
Under the drill scenario, a Kovali PS operator recorded a pressure drop at the UW crossing of the Almetievsk – Gorky-3 oil trunk pipeline and reported this conventional incident to the Kazan RPD dispatcher. Upon consent of the company’s chief engineer, a decision was made to suspend pumping by closing line valves to shut off the damaged section and route the oil flow to the undamaged standby leg.
Patrol teams of Kovali and Studenets PSs immediately moved out to the conventional incident site to find out the pressure drop causes. Fire and health crews also maintained full readiness.
Under the drill plan, inspection of the damaged oil pipeline section revealed that oil had leaked to the surface in the area of Volga river underwater crossings en route the Almetievsk – Gorky-2 and Almetievsk – Gorky-3 oil pipelines.
During the ERD, employees from the emergency maintenance divisions of Kovali, Tingovatovo, and Studenets pump stations and specialists of the CMD’s emergency response and restoration department practiced actions to contain the conventional oil spill. In particular, the dedicated machinery (ice cutters) was used to cut channels with the length of 1,300 metres and two lanes of water. Two booms extending 1,000 and 300 metres were erected. The oil skimmers were put in place with pumping lines arrangement, special tanks were installed to collect the pumped emulsion; the participants practiced actions of oil skimming from water surface for subsequent disposal.
The staff of the environmental analysis laboratory (Kazan RPD) drew samples of ambient air, soil and surface waters.
The well-coordinated actions helped the teams to successfully handle the conventional emergency and display high level of professional skills.