MOSCOW, June 25 (RAPSI) – Russia’s government has approved amendments to a bill aimed at prevention and liquidation of oil and oil products spills on land, according to a statement published on the official website of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology.

The changes are intended to improve the legal regulation in the sphere of prevention and liquidation of land oil and oil products spills. The respective requirements are to be applicable to all facilities engaged in extraction, processing, storage, and transportation of oil products, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Dmitry Kobylkin said.

The draft document proposes that companies are to approve a plan of liquidation of oil spills agreed with the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage on condition the Emergency Ministry reports that the respective organization is ready for clean-up operations.

Besides, the companies are to be obliged to reserve financial means to cover the measures they are to undertake as to prevention and liquidation of oil spills including the funds designated for full compensation of the respective environmental damages.

The amendments, which according to Deputy PM Victoria Abramchenko have been developed on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin, are to be submitted to the State Duma soon.