‘Climate change doesn’t worry us’: The end of Russia’s Siberian oil era is still a long way off

Published

3 years ago

November 1, 2021

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Drive through the swamplands of Western Siberia, and you’ll pass one oil installation after the next. This is the largest petroleum basin on Earth and the heartland of Russia’s vast oil and gas reserves.

Pipelines cut through the swampy ground. Fuel tankers thunder past, carrying hydrocarbons for global delivery.

There is not much sense of a climate crisis here.

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Surgut is Siberia’s Houston, the oil capital of the region if not the country. Surgutneftegaz (‘neft’ is Russian for oil) is the main employer in town. Salaries, like in Russia’s other oil and gas cities, are among the highest in the country. Working for big oil has its perks.

In the city centre, Surgutneftegaz has built a monument in the shape of a fountain of oil, the faces of the oil workers modelled on actual employees.

There we meet a group of young recruits out on a team-building exercise, pretending to be oil pumps, which they do to peals of laughter.

“Climate change doesn’t worry us a lot,” one says.

“We were born here, we got used to the cold. Any climate conditions for us are fine.”

It is a sentiment you’ll hear a lot, especially among Siberians. That warmer temperatures as a result of climate change might not be all bad. President Putin‘s promise of carbon neutrality by 2060 draws blank stares. These youngsters have not heard about it and don’t know what it means.

I ask one of the supervisors if he thinks Russia will make it by 2060.

“Not in our lifetime,” he replies.

Our local driver remembers flying into Surgut in Soviet times, when the night skies were so lit up by flares from the oil fields that you felt you were landing into a fire. There are fewer now, but we still pass plenty, blazing like beacons in the night.

Flaring is when associated petroleum gases (APG) which accumulate during oil extraction are burnt off rather than stored or re-processed. APG is mostly methane, with a few other pollutants mixed in. Burning it to produce carbon dioxide is more environmentally friendly than venting it, releasing it deliberately, but there is still a substantial “methane slip”.

Flare analytics firm Capterio believes the global average methane slip amounts to around 10%, with total CO2 equivalent emissions from flaring therefore at 1.2bn tonnes. The firm estimates that’s around one-and-a-half times as much as the aviation industry emits, or the equivalent of taking every single car in the EU off the roads.

Russia is by far the worst flaring culprit worldwide. At many of the facilities we pass belonging to state oil giant Rosneft, the flares are substantial.

At one plant on the Mamontovskoye oil field where we stop to film, flares emit around six to seven million cubic feet of CO2 equivalent per day.

“That’s a moderate-sized flare on a global scale, but it is still bigger than almost every flare in the United States,” Capterio’s chief executive Mark Davis says – and it is by no means the largest around Surgut.

Those are just the emissions we can see. Then there is the direct release of methane from leaking pipelines or other oil and gas infrastructure, or from venting.

Drone technology means methane leaks are easy to pick up, enabling companies to clean up their act if they’re prepared to make the investment. Satellite technology means you can even spot the leaks from space, meaning companies that don’t can be identified.

If the EU goes ahead with a carbon border adjustment mechanism that would impose a levy on companies for high-carbon supply chains, Russia’s fossil fuel exports to its largest customer base could face substantial costs. No wonder, in Russia, the EU’s so-called “carbon tax” is not popular.

Rosneft has pledged zero flaring by 2030 as part of a sustainability strategy that includes better monitoring of methane emissions along its pipelines and improved processing of APG. These are admirable goals, and it may well reach them.

But what Igor Sechin says – as Rosneft’s chief executive and one of the most powerful men in the country – and what middle managers in remote oil fields actually do in terms of efficient carbon management might prove tricky to marry up.

It is telling that BP – which holds a 19.75% stake in Rosneft – is aiming to be net-zero across the carbon in its upstream oil and gas production by 2050, with the notable exclusion of Rosneft.

It is telling, too, that Russia, as one of the top five methane emitters, has not signed on to the Global Methane Pledge finalised at COP26 which requires signatories to slash their methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

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The US president has reprimanded Russia, and China, for not showing up in Glasgow. But President Putin has come a long way in a short time on climate change, his absence probably more to do with not wishing to be scolded on other geopolitical points of difference than because he’s not engaged with the issue.

In a video address to the G20, he claimed Russia was among the world’s decarbonisation leaders. He also listed the reduction of associated gas discharge from the oil industry as one of a number of steps being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But the flares we saw are one small measure of the distance Russia still has to travel. And the emissions from flaring, venting and leaking are just a fraction of what we burn from the consumption of fossil fuels.

Unless global habits change, Russia will continue to rely on oil, gas, and coal exports as countries muddle their way through the energy transition.

From Western Siberia, the end of the oil era looks like it’s still a long, long way off.

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World

Health warning issued as heatwave grips South and Southeast Asia

Published

14 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Health warning issued as heatwave grips South and Southeast Asia

Countries in South and Southeast Asia have been coping with a weeks-long heatwave which has seen record temperatures sweep parts of the region.

Pupils in the Philippines, India and Bangladesh have been told to stay at home and learn remotely due to a severe health risk.

Schools in Cambodia have also cut back on their hours.

Cambodia faces its hottest temperature in 170 years, according to meteorologists – as high as 43C (109F).

Bangkok in Thailand has reached 40C (104 F), but the heat index is said to have topped 50 C (122 F) due to the heat being trapped among the mass of buildings.

The United Nations Children’s Fund warned in April that the heat could put the lives of millions of children at risk and asked people who care for them to take extra precautions.

A spokesperson for UNICEF said around 243 million children were exposed to hotter and longer heatwaves.

They said the increased heat was “putting them at risk of a multitude of heat-related illnesses, and even death”.

Thirty people in Thailand have died from heatstroke in the past month, according to data from the country’s health ministry.

People are being advised to avoid outdoor activities and to stay hydrated.

Several towns in Myanmar were included on lists of the hottest spots globally last month, with temperatures reaching 48.2C (118F) in at least one case.

Parts of eastern India also experienced their hottest April on record.

Kerala, on India’s west coast, this week instructed all schools and colleges to close until Monday, while influencers in Bangladesh have encouraging people to plant trees in response to the record heat.

Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said there were three factors for heatwaves: a naturally-occurring climate phenomenon known as El Nino, an increase in global temperatures, and human-induced climate change.

Brazil is currently experiencing another climate phenomenon – La Nina – with 39 dead and 68 missing in floods across the country.

More than 24,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the flooding.

Scientists believe the naturally-occurring phenomenon has intensified due to the impact of climate change.

World

Philippine coastguard hits out at China’s ‘brute force’ after water cannon attack

Published

22 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Philippine coastguard hits out at China's 'brute force' after water cannon attack

China has been branded “a bully” and an international lawbreaker after its ships blasted Philippine vessels with water cannon in the South China Sea.

Sky News was on board the BRP Bagacay when a Chinese vessel fired water at it, causing significant damage.

Philippine coastguard spokesman Jay Tarriela told Sky News that this week’s confrontation was the first time China had used “such aggression” against their ships.

“The metal parts and the railing were bent. The canopy was also destroyed. So this came as a surprise for us that China never hesitated to use brute force,” he said.

“It completely justifies us calling The People’s Republic of China a bully country.”

The Philippine coastguard was on a resupply mission to the Scarborough Shoal to deliver food and fuel to Philippine fishermen when they were struck.

The submerged reef lies in disputed waters. China claims sovereignty over the reef but it is much closer to the Philippines and lies within its legally recognised exclusive economic zone.

The vessel Sky News was on board was the closest the coastguard had ever been to the shoal – just 600 metres away from it.

Asked if the mission to the shoal was a provocative move by the Philippine coastguard, Commodore Tarriela denied they were “poking the bear” but rather “driving the bear out of our own territory”.

The Philippines has been stepping up its patrols in the area under the instruction of President Bongbong Marcos, and reasserting its claim to the shoal in recent months.

It has raised the spectre of open conflict. While neither side currently wants that, there is now a greater threat of open conflict.

Asked what the end game was for the Philippines, Commodore Tarriela said their priority was to “tell the world” about China’s aggression.

He said their secondary goal was to ensure “like-minded states” also made China “fall in line and respect international law”.

“Otherwise, it’s everybody’s loss,” he added.

Philippine government policy is not to resist using water cannon against Chinese vessels – and Commodore Tarriela insisted that policy remains in place after the confrontation.

The government also remains intensely determined to protect the waters it believes it has every right to operate in.

“We’re not going to yield and we’re not going to surrender a square inch of our territory,” Commodore Tarriela insisted.

Beijing has called the action its own coastguard took as “necessary”.

Speaking at the Chinese foreign ministry’s daily news conference, spokesperson Lin Jian described the coastguard’s conduct as “professional, proper, and lawful”.

World

Three charged over killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada – in incident which sparked diplomatic spat with India

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2024

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Three charged over killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada - in incident which sparked diplomatic spat with India

Three suspects have been charged by Canadian police over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Vancouver last June, in an incident that sparked a diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New Delhi.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a temple by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver, on 18 June 2023.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner David Teboul said police could not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive.

“This matter is very much under active investigation,” Teboul said.

The three suspects – Indian nationals Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh – were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said: “This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India when he said in September that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing. India angrily denied involvement.

Mr Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a leader in what remains of the Khalistan movement – a once-strong group calling for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland.

He was organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of this death and had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its power but is still supported by some in the Punjab state in northwestern India and in the Sikh diaspora overseas.

A violent, decade-long Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, and was ultimately crushed in a government crackdown which saw thousands of people killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

In June 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, where separatists had taken refuge.

In more recent years, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.

Read more: What is the Khalistan movement?

The diplomatic row saw diplomats expelled by both India and Canada.

The Indian government said it “completely rejected” Mr Trudeau’s allegations and added: “We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law.”

The dispute derailed trade talks between the two countries and ultimately saw Canada withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats in India.

At the time, Canada did not provide public evidence to back up Mr Trudeau’s allegations. However, it did reveal the claims were based on intelligence provided by a major ally and surveillance of Indian diplomats in the country.