Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency after a massive amount of oil from a power plant owned by a subsidiary company of Norilsk Nickel spilled into a river near the Siberian city of Norilsk, 1,800 miles northeast of Moscow.
A fuel tank holding more than 20,000 tons of diesel fuel collapsed in the Arctic Circle, resulting in a 135-square mile oil spill.
Mr. Putin criticized local government officials and the head of the company for their slow reaction to the accident.
Alexander Uss, the region’s governor, told Mr. Putin that they had only found out about the accident after ‘alarming information appeared in social media.’
“Why did government agencies only find out about this two days after the fact?” President Putin asked Sergei Lupin, the subsidiary company chief. “Are we going to learn about emergency situations from social media?”
Norilsk Nickel said in a statement that they had reported the oil spill in a “timely and proper” manner.
The incident has contaminated 350 square kilometers of land, the Russian state media reported. The Russian President has ordered further investigation into the incident, and the power plant’s manager is thought to have been detained.
The company has said that it is doing its best to clean up the spill. Specialists from Moscow have also been flown in to stop the spread of diesel fuel. While the true extent of the damage cannot be properly assessed, they expect the fuel to be removed within 10 to 14 days.
Greenpeace has called the incident the first accident of such a large scale in the Arctic Circle and believes the damage could amount to over $85 million.
Nornickel is the world’s leading producer of nickel and palladium. One of the key co-owners, Vladimir Potanin, was listed as the richest man in Russia. He had a fortune of $25 billion but lost $1.5 billion because of the incident.
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