Oil from a pipeline leaks into wetlands close to the Arctic Circle in northern Russia. Greenpeace estimated in 2000 that 15 million tons of crude oil leak out of Russia's pipeline system every year. While most of this is due to aging material and lack of service, thawing permafrost could add to the problem by destabilizing pipeline foundations. (Photo: Reuters)

MOSCOW (AFP) — Thawing permafrost caused by global warming is costing Russian energy firms billions of dollars annually in damage control and shrinking Russia’s territory, Greenpeace warned in a new study Friday. According to the report by the environmental watchdog, up to 55 billion roubles (1.9 billion dollars) a year is spent on repairs to infrastructure and pipelines damaged by changes in the permafrost in western Siberia. “For Russia, the biggest threat of the permafrost melt is to oil and gas company infrastructure,” said Vladimir Chuprov, who heads Greenpeace’s energy programme in Russia. He said that the group had consulted with experts at gas giant Gazprom in writing its report, which detailed the destruction to infrastructure such as pipelines caused by rising temperatures and resulting melt water. “These are people who see what is happening and are already feeling the economic consequences of it,” he told reporters in Moscow. Russia’s main raw export industries are spread across the Siberian permafrost, which makes up over 60 percent of its territory and includes 20 cities and several hundred thousand people. The permafrost thaw has accelerated in recent years and Russia is now shrinking by 30 square kilometres (12 square miles) per year as icey territory disappears from the coastline, one of the authors of the report, Oleg Anisimov, warned. “It’s not only an economic and infrastructure problem but a geopolitical one. It means the loss of Russian territory,” said Anisimov, a senior researcher at the State Hydrological Institute in Saint Petersburg. “It’s a simple observable fact that in the last decade the coastline retreat has sped up by five or six times.” …

Permafrost thaw threatens Russia oil and gas complex: study via Apocadocs