Сибирский лесной журнал (Jun 2023)
Pyrological expertise of oil and gas complexes
Abstract
The paper considers the urgency of the problem of flammability of sites for the location of oil and gas industry facilities and the need for pyrological expertise. For the first time in the Russian Federation, it is proposed to supplement the assessment of the impact on the environment of oil and gas complexes with the technology of pyrological expertise, developed at V. N. Sukachev Institute of Forest, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, and included in the Top-1000 list of the forum “Strong ideas for the new time-2022”. A proposal was made to supplement Clause 7.13.1.19 of the Order of the Ministry of Natural Resources dated December 1, 2020 № 999 “On approval of requirements for environmental impact assessment materials” with a fire-fighting arrangement of the territory, in accordance with the recommendations of the pyrological expertise. The concept of the pyrological expertise is given. The state of the issue on the assessment of natural fire danger in Russia and on the environmental policy of oil and gas companies is considered. To reduce the flammability of oil and gas fields, improve the fire safety of oil and gas facilities, better integrate Russian oil and gas companies into the energy transition process outlined by the Paris Agreement in 2015, and meet the requirements for industry decarbonization and ESG development, a complete review of corporate governance principles and available technologies is required, as well as shifting in mindset. The need to include vegetation fires, the number of which increases with the development of deposits, in the list of sources of greenhouse gases is noted. A review of materials and methods that can be used in the pyrological expertise is given. Guidelines have been developed for conducting the pyrological expertise based on a modern method for assessing fire hazard: making vegetation fuel maps and assessing the fire hazard of oil and gas facilities using the results of the Yurubcheno Tokhomskoe field study as an example. The methodological recommendations presented in this article are based on many years of fundamental pyrological studies and the use of contemporary data for remote sensing of the Еarth and geoinformation technologies. Carrying out a pyrological expertise by oil and gas companies will help reduce vegetation fires, and hence reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the investment attractiveness of companies and the ESG-rating.
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