Ventspils Nafta Termināls

During the last decades attitude of society towards the environmental protection has significantly changed. To be nature-friendly does not mean just craze, it is an everyday necessity. The issues of environmental control are on the agenda of today as debates on environmental quality, labour and health protection turned these factors into cornerstones of successful and effective business.

Therefore in this period, SIA Ventspils nafta termināls has paid lots of attention to environmental protection measures understanding that environmental quality forms the basis for future development.

Necessity of Ventspils Nafta Terminals' to correspond to the stringent environmental standards is explained by its location in ecologically sensitive area - in the city where lots of chemical cargoes are concentrated, at a place where the Venta river enters the Baltic Sea and in the vicinity of the dune zone. Taking into account also this fact, SIA Ventspils nafta termināls has undertaken to do a lot of actions within its environmental protection policy which provides for detection and reducion of factors negatively impacting the environment. This corresponds with the company's activity to the stringent environmental standards, education of employees and their involvement in realization of the company's environmental policy, invitation of business partners to use eco-friendly technologies, products and services, as well as information of the society about the company's environmental policy and its achievements in this sphere.

SIA Ventspils nafta termināls is organizing implementation of environmental policy with the help of a department of environmental protection in which three environment specialists work. Besides, a laboratory to control environmental quality and protection having equipment that meets international standarts is created and operating in the company. To coordinate environmental conditions at the terminal and take effective decisions in this connection, the company works out and implements a special environmental protection programme each year, which includes such various measures as maintenance of security level of technological processes, improvement of the existing environmental monitoring system, purification and improvement of polluted areas, improvement of environmental quality and management system as well as information of society about achievements of SIA Ventspils nafta termināls in the field of environmental management.

Implementing these measures, the company actively participates in implementation of Ventspils environmental policy goals, as well. One of its established goals is development of high environmental awareness of society. In order to reach this goal, popular version of SIA Ventspils nafta termināls security review was prepared.

Realizing expansion and modernization projects of SIA Ventspils nafta termināls, operation of the company is improved in accordance with international environmental management standards. Successful implementation of environmental and quality policy, which at the end of 2003 made SIA Ventspils nafta termināls possible to receive a certificate issued by the international certification company Bureau Veritas Quality International certifying that the company's management system is assessed and meets requirements of the international environmental management standard ISO-14001 and ISO 9001:2000, is also indicative of this. Continuing successful improvement of quality and environmental management system, a certificate issued by independent third party certifying that the system meets requirements of international standarts, including the new version of environmental management standard ISO 14001:2004 was repeatedly received also in 2005. Confirmation of terminal's compliance with the aforementioned environmental standard took effect on 16 March 2006.

SIA Ventspils nafta termināls received the newest certificates according to the requirements of the Quality Management Standard ISO 9001:2008 and Environment Management Standard ISO 14001:2004 in 2009. Confirmation of compliance of the terminal with the aforementioned standards has become effective on November 20, 2009, and it has been issued by the international certification organization Bureau Veritas Certification. According to requirements of the ISO standards, recertification of the terminal was necessary upon expiry of the term of the previous certificates - three years.

Significant environmental aspectsSIA Ventspils nafta termināls is aware of its environmental responsibility with the aim to minimize effects for the environment.

With the implementation and maintenance of the environment management system SIA Ventspils nafta termināls has developed and introduced a policy and objectives meeting legislative requirements and informs on significant environmental aspects.

An environmental aspect is an element of activities, products or services of the company that may interact with the environment. A significant environmental aspect is the one which has or may have a substantial influence on the environment.

The identification of the environmental aspects has been carried out by a group of experts. The evaluation included both assessment of aspects related to operations in normal conditions and deviations during start-up or stopping, as well as during potential emergency conditions and incidents.

During the evaluation of the company's activities, certain criteria were applied in order to assess the frequency of impact, effect of impact, efficiency of use of natural resources, real significance of impact on the environment, application of legal requirements to a certain aspect, as well as assess existing preventive measures.

On the basis of the mentioned criteria SIA Ventspils nafta termināls has identified the following significant aspects of its activity, which mostly are related to operations in substandard conditions or emergency situations, e. g., spills of petroleum products with the fire, non-conforming technical state of equipment, including electrical equipment, large spills of petroleum products from the pipelines, as well as collection of the historic contamination.

Understanding the significance of these aspects, the company has put forward aims and set tasks to mitigate an impact in case of such events, and also informs the public about the significant environmental aspects of SIA Ventspils nafta termināls.