The local authority in Usinsk requested a halt to pumping on 24 August 1994, in a meeting with representatives of the oil companies using the pipeline. They refused. A spokesperson for British Gas told Reuters newswire on 27 October 1994 that they believed patching of the pipeline was in progress, and therefore oil was still running through the pipeline despite the spills over a month earlier.
Documents shown to Greenpeace revealed that at the time of the spill in late August/September, 1994, the following companies were pumping through the damaged pipeline:
KomiArcticOil (Komineft, UkhtaNeftGasGeologia, Gulf Canada, British Gas) : |
1800 t/day |
Conoco: |
1500 t/day |
KomiQuest:(Quest Energy, Komineft): |
unknown |
Archangelskneftegaz: |
4000 t/day |
KomiNeft: |
4000 t/day |
Sokol: |
1000 t/day |
Clearly the oil now polluting the Arctic in the Komi region belongs to these companies, although they hide behind the legalities of their carefully worded contracts. Gulf Canada's spokesperson John Sparks summed up the attitude: "We don't own the pipeline, we just use it," he said to Greenpeace.