Komi Arctic Pipeline spill

1994 • Komi Republic, Russia

"According to the natural resources and environment minister, Sergei Donskoi, 1.5m tonnes of oil are spilled in Russia each year. That’s more than twice the amount released by the record-breaking Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010." —Alec Luhn, environmental journalist In October 1994, between one and two million barrels of hot oil spilled into the frozen landscape from a broken pipeline in Usinsk, Komi Republic, a region in far-northern Russia. Cover-up efforts by Komineft oil company prevented intervention from Moscow or international governments to assess or remediate the damage. While 1994 may have been the largest single spill on record in arctic Russia, deteriorated pipeline infrastructure in the region, which is among the largest oil-producing areas in the world, contributes to chronic leaks and ruptures that are thought to average over a million tons per year.

Alec Luhn, "The town that reveals how Russia spills two Deepwater Horizons of oil each year," The Guardian, 5 August 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/05/the-town-that-reveals-how-russia-spills-two-deepwater-horizons-of-oil-each-year Additional sources: Sam Howe Verhovek, "Ruptured Pipeline Spreading Hot Oil In Russia's Arctic," New York Times, 25 October 1994, https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/25/world/ruptured-pipeline-spreading-hot-oil-in-russia-s-arctic.html Will Englund, "In Russia, cover-up is as big as oil spill," The Baltimore Sun, 31 October 1994, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-10-31-1994304003-story.html

Image: A 2020 diesel fuel spill from a faulty pipeline in arctic Norilsk, Russia, captured by the Centurion satellite (via Wikimedia Commons)