3.5. Biodiversity Preservation

The Gazprom Group companies greatly contribute to international, Russian and local programs on plant and animal life protection in their regions of operation. Strict compliance with Russian and international environmental laws and standards, care for the environment, and prevention of damage to marine and terrestrial ecosystems are all preconditions for PJSC Gazprom projects.

In line with the Environmental Policy of PJSC Gazprom, all of the Company’s capital investment projects involve measures to minimize risks of adverse environmental impacts at all stages, in particular, impacts on highly vulnerable natural environments and the environments that need to be protected and preserved as a matter of crucial importance.

PJSC Gazprom’s Coordinating Committee for Rational Use of Natural Resources manages environmental protection activities, which include matters of biodiversity preservation.

In 2021, the Group spent RUB 702.7 million on the preservation of biodiversity, protection of designated natural areas, as well as protection and replacement of fish reserves. This is 32 % more than in 2020, an increase that came on the back of reforestation activities as part of PJSC Gazprom’s capital construction in 2021.

The reporting year saw no significant direct or indirect impact of Group companies’ operations on vulnerable ecosystems and biodiversity.

The Group does not keep count of the total number of IUCN Red List species and national conservation list species with habitats in areas affected by its operations due to the large size of the territories where the Gazprom Group operates.

The Company has facilities that are located near or within the following designated conservation areas:

• Anyuysky, Kislovodsky, Losiny Ostrov, Meshchersky, Nechkinsky, Orlovskoye Polesye, Pleshcheevo Ozero, Pripyshminskiye Bory, Sochinsky, Ugra, Khvalynsky, Yugyd Va national parks;
• Klyazminsky, Nadymsky, Priazovsky, Ryazansky, Saratovsky, Severo-Ossetinsky, Kurgalsky, Utrish state nature reserves and federal reservations;
• Some regional DCAs.

The Group performs its activities in DCAs in full compliance with the national environmental protection legislation and land use terms and conditions specified for a relevant DCA.

For the sake of biodiversity, OEM programs include relevant monitoring, construction is suspended during spring nesting season, water intake facilities are equipped with fish protective devices, and overhead transmission lines are equipped with bird protection devices. Communication lines have specific wildlife passages to facilitate reindeer migration.

The Group provides financing to the projects implemented in the Arctic in collaboration with the Russian Geographic Society, including the monitoring of island ecosystems and the preservation of populations of rare marine mammal species and the polar bear within the designated conservation areas in the northeastern part of the Barents Sea.

PJSC Gazprom is implementing the Biodiversity Preservation Program Based on the List of Flora and Fauna Species Being Indicators of Marine Ecosystems Stability in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation. The Program was developed in consultation with leading research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Arctic National Park Federal State Budgetary Institution, and Marine Mammal Council Regional Public Organization.

Geological exploration, drilling, hydrocarbon production, and the construction and use of pipelines and other facilities cause land disturbance and pollution. The Gazprom Group follows the required remediation and rehabilitation procedures to put the disturbed or polluted land back into economic use.

This process involves a technical and a biological stage that rely on the following methods:

• mechanical clean-up;
• soil and slope reinforcement (latex coatings, Xanthan biopolymer, used drilling fluid, geowebs and geotextiles);
• use of humic substances, ion-exchange substrate, and rhizosphere bacteria, as well as algae-based revegetation methods and more;
• microbiological agents to clean up hydrocarbon contamination (Putidoil, Devoroil, BIOROS);
• bioremediation using specially selected grass crops.

Land-related impacts are not an acute environmental issue for the Group, with remediation taking place as necessary and in due time. No accumulation of harm to land resources has been detected.

During the reporting year, the area of land disturbed by the Group decreased by 16.9% compared to 2020. This came on the back of lower seismic survey activities by Gazprom Neft and reduced scale of overhauls and construction at PJSC Gazprom.

The 8.6% increase in remediated land in 2021 resulted from the return of unused lands to the lessor.

In 2021, employees of PJSC Gazprom’s subsidiaries and the Vernadsky Non-Governmental Environmental Foundation jointly participated in such projects as the allRussian Best Eco-Volunteer Team contest, Green Spring national environmental clean-up, national Bike to Work Day, international contest Environmental Culture. Peace and Harmony, Vernadsky National Environmental Award, and #TogetherBrighter All-Russian Energy Conservation Festival.

Gazprom Dobycha Krasnodar and the Shaposhnikov Caucasus State Nature Biosphere Reserve organized educational environmental events, including the Meet Birds! photo exhibition for schoolchildren, Environmental Challenges DCA-themed animated video brainstorm, and Priazovsky Reserve book publication.

Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk and the Federal Research Center of Coal and Coal Chemistry of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences continued their work to create a recreational space in the form of a reserve that would become a new home for endangered plants, animals and mushrooms from the areas that become Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk construction sites. Furthermore, Gazprom Dobycha Kuznetsk saw to the launch of an eponymous alley and the planting of the Siberian larch along it as part of the Clean Air project, all in order to boost the landscape diversity of Kemerovo and promote the innovative Coal-Bed Methane Production project.