Kazakhstan, Astana, April 27 /Trend, A. Maratov/
Kazakhstan is going to establish common specialized emergency situations adequate response organization in the Caspian, Askar Urazmagambetov, Chief of the Ministry of Emergency Situations' Oil & Gas Industry State Control Division, reported in Astana today.
"Enterprises, subsoil users and transport companies operational in the Kazakh national sector of the Caspian Sea have mobilized their strength and potentials to respond to oil spills," Urazmagambetov told an OSCE conference devoted to the problem of marine oil spills.
At the same time, "In Kazakhstan, there is no emergency & rescue division specialized in localization and liquidation of open-sea oil and gas gushers, which are the basic reasons of oil spills," he said.
For several consecutive years the Ministry had been proposing to establish a specialized marine division, which should have been examined by the Republican Budgetary Commission, but the proposal did not receive backing, Urazmagambetov said.
"The Ministry, together with concerned state bodies, explored the opportunity of establishing a common specialized emergency situations adequate response organization in the Caspian. Following the results of examination, state bodies came to unanimous opinion that it was essential to establish such organization on the basis of paramilitary anti-gusher division Akbergen within the frames of state and private partnership, with the state and subsoil users holding interests in the organization," Urazmagambetov said.
He explained that apart from the elimination of emergency situations related to oil and gas spills and extinguishing of fires at oil facilities in the northern Caspian, this organization will perform state functions of provision of assistance, rescue and evacuation of people from the sea, extinguish fires at offshore facilities, lift drowned ships, and carry out submarine technical works in the area of emergency situations.
The Ministry currently works to develop the required documentation and calculate number of special devices, equipment, buildings, and premises required for the establishment of such an organization, he said.