Nornickel oil spill cost may well surpass $150mln

Nornickel's estimated $150-million cost to clean a company oil leak is "hugely preliminary", the Russian miner said in a press conference two weeks after the biggest oil spill in the Arctic Circle since the Exxon Valdez.

And the company expects by June 26 a government assessment of penalties, from the Environment Supervision Agency (Rosprirodnadzor), Nornickel said during the teleconference on June 9. Russia declared a state of emergency on June 4, by when the May 29 spill near the Siberian city of Norilsk had spread 350 square kilometers.
Some observers suggest Nornickel's costs from the incident could be 10 times higher. Oleg Mitvol, former deputy head of Rospririodnadzor, told the BBC that the clean-up could cost $1.5 billion and take up to 10 years.

The Exxon Valdez, an infamous 1989 oil tanker spill off the coast of Alaska in the United States, cost Exxon more than $3.8 billion to clean up the site, compensate nearby residents and...

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