The chances of new emergencies arising at modern oil and gas facilities in the Arctic are minimal because their design takes due account of the thawing permafrost effect, said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in his interview with Bloomberg TV.

"As for environmental security in general, Russia's fuel and energy industry pays serious attention to this matter. We have laws and special requirements that all enterprises must observe. These requirements are fully consistent with the climatic conditions, including forecasts of Arctic warming. Modern facilities that are being built there meet the highest environmental standards," he pointed out.

Earlier, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dmitry Kobylkin expressed the opinion that the accident at the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company's thermal power plant No. 3 could have happened because of global climate processes causing soil thawing in the Arctic.