A NaftaGaz’ employee shall take part in a scientific expedition to the Caspian Sea

In NaftaGaz a contest took place for participation in an expedition to monitor the Caspian seal to the Maly Zhemchuzhny island, Chechen, the adjacent water area, and the Dagestan’s seacoast.

The Company keeps supporting the project of the Compass Eco-Foundation for the second straight year. It is a program for investigation and conservation of the population of the Caspian seal, which is in a critical condition after a mass die-off in December 2022. The investigations performed jointly by the scientists and the Compass Foundation revealed a critically low density of the seals in their seasonal habitats. In order to understand how to ensure security of the species it is necessary to urgently unite the efforts of all the Caspian states and adopt a comprehensive plan for conservation of the species over the next 5-10 years. In the IUCN Red List the Caspian seal has been classified as “Endangered”. This endemic species is included into the Red Data Books of all the Caspian countries.

NaftaGaz decided to join the autumn expedition not only by means of financial support, but also by means of personal participation of a Company’s employee in the expedition. To win the contest one should write an essay regarding one’s wish to help the nature and send examples of one’s personal photo sessions. At the final a vote for the best essay was organized on the corporate portal, and the team chose Anatoly Khabarov, a drilling foreman assistant, working in the drilling crew at the Novogodneye field, as a winner.

“I always would like to be in a place, where the most people fear to have a step, overcoming what not everyone is capable of. I am a father of two wonderful boys. We appear to live in an era of gadgets, and in order to instill a desire to explore and preserve the environment in children, the words and encouragement are not enough — the examples and deeds are needed!

After returning from this expedition and showing at least part of the collected material to my children and those around us, perhaps, I will manage to shed light on the issue of disappearance of certain animal species and initiate the awareness for the future generations,” — wrote Anatoly Khabarov in his essay.

According to Tatiana Kovaleva, the Director of the Compass Ecological Initiatives Support and Development Foundation regarding the initiative of the partner: “We are glad, that our work of investigating the Caspian seals is built with such a partner as NaftaGaz. The company not only provided the financial support for the program implementation, but also inspired its employees to take part in the expeditions: the contestants passed the full-fledged training, and the best from the best — Anatoly Khabarov was chosen as the winner. A meeting with Anatoly showed how deep he is in the subject, truly strives to understand the reasons for the decline of the population of these unique animals and make every effort possible for their conservation. The most important is that the company went beyond financing and actively involved its employees into the program implementation process. This inspires us for a successful result of our joint activity.”

A six-day expedition is planned for the second half of November. It will start on the Maly Zhemchuzhny island, where the accounting works shall be performed on the “Kasatka”-type motor boats in the adjacent water area from the territory of the Astrakhan conservancy area. Then the expedition group shall move to the lake Chechen, where the investigations in the water area near the Sulak (or Staroterechnoye) settlement of the Republic of Dagestan shall take place. Also, monitoring at the Dagestan coast shall be performed, talks with the local fishermen held in order to record their evidence.

During the expedition the leading specialists in marine mammals of the Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development of Dagestan State University (the city of Makhachkala), Virology Research Institute of the Federal Research Center of Fundamental and Translational Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the city of Novosibirsk) shall collect the data regarding the magnitude, age and sex structures of the population of the seal, collect the samples of the animal’s habitat components and food items, biological samples. The objective of the ambassador from NaftaGaz shall be to provide assistance to the scientists and keep a journal, which shall be published in the company’s social media.

NaftaGaz is an independent oil service company, implementing its charity program in the presence regions by means of a direct contact with social security departments, provision of grant aid to the people, who found themselves in a hardship. The company is also a trustee of the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts and the general partner of the “Invented and Made in Russia” Object Design Biennale.

Photo provided by the “KOMPAS” Foundation