Bacteria discovered in the Arctic will help clean soil from petroleum products

Specialists of the company “Rosneft” and Russian Arctic National Park discovered bacteria within the joint project “Clean Arctic”. The bacteria can be used to develop an innovative product for cleaning soil from petroleum products. The scientists identified the promising microorganisms when sampling contaminated soil on the island of Alexandra Land, where warehouses of fuel and lubricant materials were located until 2015.

In the course of the series of tests conducted in laboratories of the Federal Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the Russian Academy of Sciences the unique feature of the bacteria was discovered — they are able to decompose petroleum products at a low temperature (2-6°C). The microorganisms can be used in creation of biological preparations for complex cleaning of soils in the Arctic from petroleum products. Thus, the discovery made by the scientists will solve one of the main environmental problems of the Arctic territories, as the information policy division of “Rosneft” informs.

“Since the process of self-cleaning of soils is long, biotechnological methods of soil reclamation, which we are currently studying on the Franz Josef Land archipelago, are becoming extremely important”, said Dmitry Kryukov, the head of the integrated scientific project “Clean Arctic”.

The project “Clean Arctic” became the logical continuation of the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation on clean up of the Arctic territories, fulfillment of which was started on the Franz Josef Land archipelago in 2012. Previously, “Rosneft” together with biologists from Moscow State University and with support of the Innopraktika Foundation developed a preparation having no analogues in the world for liquidation of oil pollution in water at low and negative temperatures.  

“Clean Arctic” is an integrated joint project of “Rosneft” and Russian Arctic National Park. It was launched in 2019. The initiative is aimed at restoration of the ecosystem of the northernmost territories of Russia — the protected Franz Josef Land archipelago. The main objective is to assess the extent of contamination of the territory as a result of human economic activity during development of the Arctic in the epoch of the USSR. The joint project became the logical continuation of operations on liquidation of accumulated ecological damage. The work was fulfilled in the period 2012-2017 on islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago and on Novaya Zemlya within the borders of the national park.