OREANDA-NEWS. February 20, 2013. The year-end collegium of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan with participation of Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sergey Donskoy, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, and Marina Seliverstova, Head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources was held in Kazan. The guests invited included the heads of the Ecology Ministries of the Volga Federal District, reported the press-centre of TATNEFT.

The collegium meeting was attended by representatives of JSC TATNEFT: Rais Khisamov, Deputy General Director - Chief Geologist of JSC TATNEFT and Ravil Gareev, Chief Technology Officer for Corrosion and Environment Control of JSC TATNEFT. TATNEFT also presented an exhibition of the Company's environmental and resource-saving technologies.

Artyom Sidorov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, presented the information about the results of the Ministry's activities in 2012 and tasks for 2013. He reminded that 2013 had been announced in Russia as the Year of the environment protection and in Tatarstan - the Year of environmental culture and environment protection. The Minister pointed out the achievements of major Tatarstan companies in the field of the environmental protection. For example, JSC TATNEF was the first company in Russia to reach a level of 95 percent of associated petroleum gas utilization.

According to Artyom Sidorov the main part in the amount of harmful emissions falls on motor transport in Tatarstan. On average the share of motor vehicles in the amount of these emissions in the Republic exceeded 50 percent, and it is 70 - 75 percent in large cities. This was also mentioned in the report of Ilsur Metshin, Mayor of Kazan, who informed on the measures to ensure environmental safety in anticipation of the Universiade.

Presentations were also made by the invited guests of the collegium: Anna Kurbatova, Head of the Scientific Research and Design Institute of Urban Ecology, Alla Albegova, Head of the Department of Ecology and Nature Management of Kirov region, Alexander Nesterov, Acting Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Udmurt Republic and Vera Soldatova, Attorney of the Volga interregional environmental Prosecutor's Office.

Marina Seliverstova, Head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources, highly appraised the efforts of Tatarstan's leadership in the field of environmental protection emphasizing the responsible position of the Government of the Republic in the use of reservoirs and water resources.

Sergey Donskoy, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia, has pointed out in his speech, that effective cooperation is possible only when it involves all governing bodies. According to him, the Year of the environment protection requires consolidation of all efforts of the governmental agencies and the society to achieve the results desired.

At the end of the event the participants visited the exhibition. Of great interest were environmental technologies applied at TATNEFT Company and in particular vapor recovery units.

The event was followed by the meeting attended by Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic, Sergey Donskoy, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, Ravil Muratov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Rais Khisamov, Deputy General Director - Chief Geologist of JSC TATNEFT, where they discussed a number of topical issues.