Environmentalists promise the companies a wave of protests; oil workers and experts reassure activists: no increased levels of radiation have been recorded in the area of the fields.

Joint plans of OJSC NK Rosneft and the American Exxon Mobil Corp. to develop a section of the Kara Sea bottom may be disrupted, Bloomberg wrote on Tuesday . A scandal is erupting around the results of the work of a joint Russian-Norwegian expert commission, which is preparing to report on monitoring the environmental situation in the Arctic region, where oil giants will be drilling.

As it turned out, the disputed site was used by the authorities of the Soviet Union for more than 25 years as a storage facility for radioactive waste - a nuclear repository. However, this circumstance is unlikely to help environmentalists stop drilling. According to preliminary estimates, the total recoverable reserves of the areas where Rosneft and Exxon will operate could meet the resource needs of the entire world for five years. We are talking about the East Prinovozemelsky fields with resource volumes of 4.9 billion tons of oil and condensate and 8.3 trillion cubic meters of gas. At the same time, spent reactors of Soviet nuclear-powered ships and 17,000 containers with radioactive waste were buried on the same Arctic floor.

According to a Bloomberg source at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, today experts will present the commission's findings based on the results of 18 years of monitoring. They state that no increased level of radiation has been recorded in the zone. This stability does not rule out the possibility that major leaks could occur in the future, but it does discourage conservationists.

“All environmental standards and environmental protection standards are observed,” Rosneft official representative Rustam Kazharov assured the agency. According to him, the company will apply “the best available global practices” to ensure that its obligations are met. Drilling of the first well could begin as early as 2014.

The Arctic remains one of the most polluted regions in the world and is attracting increasing attention from environmentalists. Activists, supported by green politicians (for example, a group of British MPs), are seeking a complete ban on Arctic oil and gas production. Greenpeace has recently carried out a series of campaigns against the world's largest companies - Royal Dutch Shell in Alaska, Cairn Energy in Greenland and Gazprom in Russia (in the latter case, the gas concern agreed to suspend the launch of the Prirazlomnoye field to further check the safety of the project).

The plans of Rosneft and Exxon will in any case face opposition from activists, Dmitry Litvinov, a representative of the domestic division of Greenpeace, promised Bloomberg. According to him, radioactive waste from the Arctic floor must be removed and reburied “on the ground” in compliance with all precautions. This is the only way to “prevent a catastrophe.” “Neither Russia nor anyone else should be involved in hydrocarbon production in the Arctic,” the ecologist concluded.

The greatest threat is posed by the nuclear submarine K-27, which was sunk in 1981. So far, there have been no leaks from the ship, but corrosion can damage the submarine’s reactor and lead to irreversible consequences for the environment, Norwegian experts warn in their conclusion.

Bloomberg: Rosneft and Exxon are preparing to drill in a former nuclear waste cache