Russia's oil industry and the development of rights of indigenous peoples

Yeremei Aipin

Contents

Ulla Lehtinen: "Indigenous peoples and oil" events in Finland 1999 

Olli Tammilehto: A civilised world or a bloodsucker of the earth? 

Background information on oil 

Russia's oil production 

Florian Stammler: Where does our oil come from? 

Yeremei Aipin: Russia's oil industry and the development of rights of indigenous people 

Agrafena Sopochina: "We Live on what the earth carries on itself" 

Yuri Vella: Kogalym-Lor - the lake where a man died 

Bruce Forbes: Industrial development in the Yamal-Nenets Area 

Lidia Okotetto: I no longer understand the tundra that has loved me 

Grigorii Anagurichi: A clash of civilisations at the ends of the world 

Charity Nenebari Ebeh: The Ogoni experience 

Magda Lanuza: Oil production in Central America 

Ecuador and oil 

Arturo Yumbai Iligama: The war against the poor 

Colombia, the U'wa and oil 

Roberto Afanador Cobaria: Oil is blood of the earth 

Workshop 1: The strategies of oil industry and the responses of indigenous peoples' movements 

Workshop 2: Networking of indigenous peoples threatened by oil and gas exploration 

Workshop 3: Northern Dimension

Communique of the participants in the seminar "Indigenous Peoples and Oil" 

Internet links

Speech in the seminar 

The first natural gas deposits in the Khanty-Mansi Area were discovered in 1953 in Berjozovo and the first oil deposits in 1960 in the town of Neftjanik. Oil was pumped at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s about a million tonnes a day for all 360 days in a year. Due to the economic crisis in Russia production has reduced and in 1997 amounted to 62 million tonnes a year. Natural gas production is not included in this figure. Production has been reduced after this but I don't have the figures for 1998. The area's share is about 60 per cent in Russia's oil production. 

Big oil companies are operating in our region such as Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Yukos and Sibneft. Some of these are among the world's ten biggest oil companies. In addition 166 companies have been registered, some of which have foreign capital investment. Amoco is one of the foreign firms which operate in our oil industry. Finnish Neste is probably also among them. Joint ventures have thus been formed. These joint ventures have American, Canadian, British, Belgian and German capital. They work in co-operation with Russian companies.

After the Russian reforms in 1992 -1993, oil companies that belonged to the state were privatised. At the moment the big oil corporations are joint stock companies, i.e., private ones. Rosneft is the only state-owned company. The state owns 30 - 50 per cent of the capital of the joint stock companies. After the privatisation profits go of course to the small group of owners and to the directors. To put it gently, they have very actively participated in privatising national property.

What kinds of problems are therefore generated in oil production? I shall shortly present this thematically. I have a small reindeer herd, so I would like to consider myself a reindeer owner, but I look at the problem also from a writer's viewpoint. One of my books has been translated into Finnish and I have met my readers during this trip, which has been very pleasant. 

I have investigated regional problems and the nature of problems that oil drilling has caused the indigenous peoples. I have been a member of the parliament of the Khanty-Mansi Area. Furthermore I was a Member of Parliament in the last Soviet Parliament that ceased its operations in 1992 and took part in legislation. I have been until 1996 a member of the Russian Duma. In this capacity I have also been involved in legislation, and have approved laws that touch on oil drilling. I can say that we have made important achievements in the relations between indigenous people, oil companies and the state. My task as a writer is to harmonise the relations between these three groups.

What concretely has been this legislative activity? In 1992 a decree guaranteeing the right to land use was approved in our autonomous area. In this decree for the first time our reindeer herders and fishermen got a sizeable part of the land, that is a right to use a significant part the land on which they live. The land, however, has belonged, and still belongs to the collective farms and sovkhozes, i.e., to co-operatives and the state. These "ancestor lands" vary in size and are up to 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) per family. The size of the area is such that traditional reindeer herding and fishing can be carried on. These are lands that do not yet have oil pipelines and roads.

After this, several other laws and decrees were passed at the federal level. In the new Russian constitution approved in 1993, article 69 guarantees indigenous peoples' rights in the territory of the Russian Federation, that is, the government has taken on that obligation. After that a dozen of federal laws were passed that have special articles dealing with the rights of the indigenous.

By relying on the constitution these ancestral and family communities have had the right to sign direct agreements with the oil companies. The oil companies have made commitments, for instance, to build specified buildings and provide funds for different purposes such as nature protection projects. Previously Soviet oil companies simply walked up to the area and began drilling. No permission was asked from anyone and no explanation given. There were no laws or decrees of any kind defining where one could and could not drill.

After 1992 no oil company has had the right to drill oil unless it has acquired permission from the family or ancestral community that has rights on the use of the land in that area. The landholders have the right to set certain conditions for drilling oil. On the scale of Russian Federation, this is an achievement. Of course there are pitfalls and the oil companies have not lived up to their commitments entirely. But to some extent the rights of indigenous peoples are being taken into consideration. They have the right to take disputes to a court of arbitration, which is a positive development. I think this could also be an example for other countries in Africa or America: we must have laws. Unless there are laws, oil companies' representatives ask the basis on which they have to pay us compensation. But now when there are legal provisions on which to lean, we can also present demands. Not even one single oil company representative has said they will not work in accordance with the law. On the contrary the companies are working according to the legal provisions, and that is why one has to begin from that end.

We have achieved significant progress when the present situation is compared to the time 39 years ago when the first oil deposits were discovered. It took 32 years before ancestral and family communities got the right to land use. That is a relatively short time. Previously we had no laws of any kind. There were only decrees that served the interests of oil companies. Besides that the oil companies were state-owned.

At the moment we have a new judicial and political situation. Now we have to take the next step forward and learn from international experiences. Indigenous peoples should sign agreements with oil companies. We also have to sign agreements with local administrative organs. There is a future in that system because if the government does not live up to its commitments, there are, however, agreements on the basis of which one can make demands. Or if local administrative organs do not fulfil their obligations there are articles of agreement that can be held against them pointing out the kind of infringements they are committing.

Thus we should have legal documents on which to lean. In Canada there is an example of a good practice where indigenous peoples sign three-tiered agreements with the government, the local administration and the oil companies. These agreements have been made only for about ten years, but within that time they have carefully been outlined and each partner in the agreement has accepted their obligations. One method is by way of agreements and the other is to take the path of legislation. I consider the method of agreements more promising. 

What kind of difficulties do we face at the moment? Certainly a problem is how indigenous peoples could present their demands in a very articulate manner. For this purpose they should properly know their rights. When I was a member of the state Duma we published a book on that subject with five chapters. For instance there is a chapter on international organisations' and UN agreements, where the rights of indigenous peoples and human rights are strengthened, etc. In the book there are also other agreements that deal with the rights of indigenous peoples. There are also decrees and laws approved by various parliaments. Then there are laws and decrees, too, that have been approved by different subjects, that is, regional governmental organs of the Russian Federation. In addition the book also contains proposals by indigenous peoples that should be signed into agreements. Ten thousand copies of the book have been printed. Now we have a second edition ready but unfortunately due to the economic difficulties, we cannot get it printed. 

We also have a newspaper called Northern Peoples' Word. It contains various information, articles and statistics on oil exploitation, natural gas production, etc. Our intention is to publish material that deals with the rights of indigenous peoples. We are trying to ensure that with the help of articles people will be informed of all the laws. And get to know on what basis to hold discussions with oil explorers.

A couple of words about the future. One must take the point of departure that indigenous peoples should have the right to control their own wealth. We have spoken of forming our own oil company. Or the indigenous should have the right of ownership or part-ownership of the firms, let's say about half of the shares. At least part of the profits of the firms should be for the benefit of the indigenous peoples. At the moment an oil company pays to the local government or the local administration. But the profits flow out and never enter the hands of those who live on the land where the extraction is taking place. We have not yet come to the situation where even part of the oil money would bring direct benefits to the indigenous peoples. Attempts have to be made in this direction. Thanks for your attention.

An initiative to Member of European Parliament Heidi Hautala

First of all I propose such projects in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area that would support the preservation of the traditional lifestyle. Secondly projects that would increase the knowledge of the local population of legal provisions. For instance internationally approved laws should be made known to every reindeer owner.

I strongly suspect that we ourselves have not done everything possible to advance our cause. This stems from ignorance and the attitude that one cannot influence issues. But it is not like that, is it?. Increasing the awareness of the population demands a lot of work.

A proposal to the Finnish minister for the environment Pekka Haavisto

The oil resources of our region are being exploited with all maximum force. For instance 60 per cent of all Russia's oil comes from our region. That is why it would be important to preserve the traditional lifestyle precisely in that region.

The second concrete proposal: can Finland give concrete support to the Yugan region where a cooperation organ has been created towards establishing the area as biosphere 

reserve in the sense of the UNESCO agreement? In our country, difficulties have arisen in registering and formalising the creation of this biosphere reserve. There is an NGO in Russia that is helping in the establishment of this reserve. It would be very helpful if Finland's ministry for the environment could give its support in this issue to the organisation of Ecojuris.

Yeremei Aipin is a well-known Khanty writer and a long time member of the Soviet, Russian and regional parliaments. Some of his Russian language books have been translated e.g. into German and Finnish.