"Such A Serious Incident Has Never Happened Before."

Which led to the death of Belorusneft workers near Rechitsa.

The Investigative Committee of Belarus reported about the tragedy in Rechitsa district, which resulted in the death of two workers of Belorusneft. In the morning of July 28, three specialists were hanging a seismic cable across the M-10 highway. During the work, they hit the power line with metal equipment. As a result, two men died on the spot from electric shock, while another one was hospitalized.

"Flagstaff" analyzed the situation with a source familiar with seismic exploration in Homel region.

The tragedy near Zaschebie

An accident with tragic consequences occurred during seismic exploration near the village of Zaschebie. Three employees of Belorusneft received electric shocks in the area of the power line. Two of them died on the spot. Another worker was taken to the hospital.

Preliminary data show that the incident occurred at the time of hanging the geophysical cable - a standard operation during the onshore seismic survey. The work was being done as part of a team from the UPSR (seismic survey department), which was providing high-density surveying on the ground. The investigators involved the specialists of the Department of State Labor Inspection of Gomel region.

The workers probably did not look up and caught the power line. At the same time, two people were holding on to the pole - it's heavy, metal, usually it is put up by three people, so there could be three dead.

Dangerous routine: how the seismic survey is organized

During seismic exploration, the geophysical cable stretches for dozens of kilometers and crosses roads, fields, forests, private buildings. In high-density surveying, survey lines can be located every 200 meters.

Traditionally, much attention is paid to the places of intersection with highways. There the cable should not run on the ground, but over the roadway - it is stretched on temporary milestones. In addition, special equipment of oilmen and foresters can move through seismic survey areas. Even without a special permit, vehicles up to 4 meters high can work on the routes, which means that the height of the supports must additionally take into account the road embankment and sagging of the line.

According to a source familiar with the work, earlier the UPSR used wooden poles for such purposes. However, the photo from the scene shows a temporary support, it is metal.

"First you need to put the milestone along the curb, only then lift it. You have to be careful not to swing the pole so as not to hit the power line," the source said.

According to the source, one of the dead employees was a 43-year-old man who had previously worked in forestry. The second was 25 years old, and the injured, who is now in hospital, was only 22. According to the source, all three had been hired by UPCR only a few months before the tragedy.

In normal practice, teams engaged in laying geophysical cable are staffed mostly by experienced workers. In this case, it is unclear who exactly was leading the crew on site. The head of the team is not among the injured. The question arises whether he was nearby when the work was being done or whether the inexperienced workers were digging the support themselves, whether the management realized the increased risk of working near power lines when switching to temporary metal supports for geophysical cable.

According to the interlocutor, there has never been such a serious incident in his memory:

"Yes, you can hit yourself with a shovel or an axe. You can easily twist your leg in the woods. I've been told that an autocyster driver once died, but that was 20-30 years ago, maybe even more. There was also a case of a water truck hitting an explosive driver. He suffered quite seriously: his pelvis was crushed, there were a lot of fractures, a lung injury. The driver drove the body back and forth, he partially pleaded guilty, he was given a fine."

The main thing - staffing?

The problems with staffing in the UPSR did not start yesterday. After 2020, dozens of specialists were dismissed from the department or their contracts were not renewed. There are at least six UPCR employees in the database of those convicted in political cases - four engineers and two workers.

The source noted that three of them were seismic station operators - a key and one of the most technically demanding positions in field work:

"I would compare them to air traffic controllers - they control a dozen teams through three communication channels, simultaneously registering data and managing explosions."

An employee of the production and technical department fell under repression, an engineer in the quality control group was convicted, another one quit. At least two supervisors of seismic exploration works left Belorusneft: a geophysicist went to Poland, a geodesist - to the U.S. after winning a green card. One of the convicts is the son of one of the most experienced workers, who was also forced to leave the department.

"Several of the dismissed guys were geophysical engineers or geophysical technicians just from the field crews. That is, those who were engaged in the work of laying the seismic cable," the co-founder added.

It is roughly estimated that the total losses of the USPS after 2020 amounted to at least 25-30 engineers and workers, which could be as high as 10-15% of the roster. For a technically narrow and closed unit, such scales mean more than just "turnover".

It is in the seismoparty of UPCR that the most engineers and workers have been laid off.

At the background of the purges in the management, the leadership has also changed. The chief engineer today came from a drill and blast unit, the head of the department came before the protests began, but he is the first in the history of the UPSR without seismic experience. The management of the seismic party and the production and technical department are staffed by people with a geodesic background, not geophysicists. According to the interlocutor, "smart guys have been promoted, but they are not geophysicists, which is quite strange if we remember that this is a seismic exploration department":

"The feeling is that more often in appointments it is not the profile qualification that matters, but "ideological purity". Since 2020, the directorate has no experience in international contracts, which also served as sources of professional development for employees."

Social media as a mirror of change

The seismic directorate's social networks have become noticeably more ideological in recent years. In Instagram of the USPSR usually publishes photos from field work, but today much is in the feed - the involvement of employees in patriotic rallies, reports on participation in educational work with employees.

A separate place is occupied by an anchored post calling for the formation of a personnel reserve - the administration asks those wishing to send questionnaires and resumes for possible employment.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail [email protected]