The Arbitration Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory recited 146.17 billion rubles from Nickel. Because of the accident at the CHP. He partially satisfied the claim of Rosprirodnadzor, which required to recover from the company of 147.7 billion rubles, the service said. This is a record amount of compensation for environmental damage in the history of Russia. She was awarded for the greatest catastrophe in the Arctic.
The fuel spill occurred on May 29 - from the reservoir No. 5 on the CHP-3 of Norilsk, more than 21,000 tons flowed. The reservoir belongs to the "daughter" "Norilskel", JSC Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company (NTEK).
The company did not agree with the appointed compensation, it came to court. Norilskel insisted that payments should be 21.4 billion rubles. The parties were discrepancies in the data of the remaining chemicals, as well as the time of the beginning of the elimination of the accident.
"This court decision, unfortunately, should be expected. The company was warned that it was necessary to choose another protection strategy in court, "says a person who is familiar with the situation. If the company demanded to reduce compensation not up to 21 billion rubles, and up to 57 billion rubles, the court would have an objective basis to agree with her, the head of the projects of the Scientific and Methodological Center "Informatics Risk" Valentin Zhuravel believes.
From the point of view of Rosprirodnadzor, the damage is the estimated value that is not associated with the amount that may be required or has been spent on eliminating the consequences, it depends on the specific parameters, the expert explains. For example, from the time that passed before the start of the response (very important parameter). There are objective evidence, including from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Rosmorrechflut, which put the fencing on the river in two days, thus, it was possible to take 48 hours as the time of reaction began, and not more than 120 hours, as Rosprirodnadzor claimed, notes Zhuravel. In this case, the estimated damage is 56-58 billion rubles, he explains. The representative of Nickel in court said that the response time was less than six hours. But it was an ineffective response, since the spread of pollution could not be stopped, the zhuravel notes. The court did not have anything left, how to stand on the side of the state, although not quite correct, he concludes.
Despite disagreement with the assessment of compensation, Norilskel back in 2020 reserved $ 2.1 billion (approximately 160 billion rubles. At the current course) on the liquidation and compensation of damage, it is seen from the reporting of the company for the first half of 2020, compensation appointed by the court Approximately $ 1.9 billion
Norilskel carefully examines the court decision on the claim from Rosprirodnadzor, the company says. The decision will enter into force only a month after it is completely presented, and in the event that it will not be appealed. The representative of Nickel did not clarify Vtimes, is it going to appeal against the court decision.
Promotions "Nickel" After the news about the decision of the court passed to the fall: by 14:40, paper fell by 1.7% compared with the principle of trading.
"Nevertheless, this news, by and large, should already be in price or even positive for the company. First, Nickel is reserved for the payment of compensation. Secondly, in our opinion, the paper is fundamentally underestimated and the resolution of history with recovery should remove the uncertainty and will eventually serve as the restoration of the company's fair assessment, "said Analyst BCS Global Markets Artem Bagdasaryan Vtimes.
The money that the company will pay will be enrolled in the federal budget. Most disturbed the target use of the funds, noted the deputy director of the Ecology, the co-chairman of the Ecological Chamber Vadim Petrov earlier, since the targeted use is not provided by law.
"I am sure that this money will go to the solution of environmental problems," Svetlana Radionova said the head of Rosprirodnadzor. - I think the government will make exactly a decision. We make this public history even more open. " Profile Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko promised to personally follow the money to go to environmental projects, first of all, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, on the territory of Norilsk.
"Today's court is in many ways a precedent who can help truly solve environmental problems at the system level," said Elena Sakirko, head of the Greenpeace Energy Department in Russia. In Russia, accidents are regularly related to spilling oil and petroleum products. Some of these incidents do not even fall into official statistics, resembles Sakirko. And even if the company fails to hide leakage, then compensation for damage and the size of the fines often do not correspond to the consequences - the deceased forests, the absence of fish in rivers - these are severe consequences for the entire ecosystem, it explains.
"This is a great achievement of Rosprirodnadzor. In difficult harness with the lawyers of Nickel, and we all know that the mining companies will not be stored for such expenses, the Office was able to defend the interests of society and nature, the head of the WWF program of Russia on the environmental responsibility of business Alexey Knitnikov comments. - This is an unprecedented claim for financial standards, and in terms of a ton of spilled petroleum products received by the aquatic environment, comparable to the fact that BP has paid for an accident in the Gulf of Mexico. "
This is a fateful, turning day, noted Abramchenko, from now on the environmental agenda becomes relevant. She is waiting for the owners of large hazardous productions to change the attitude towards how they upgrade their production. "It is much cheaper to modernize production than to reimburse the damage in the amount of 146 billion rubles," Abramchenko noticed.