LUKOIL started to devise its system of dealing with the indigenous minorities of the North (IMN) from its very foundation, since the first companies to make up the Group operated in the regions of IMN residence (KHMAA-Yugra). Later on, the Company expanded its operations to include adjacent territories (YaNAA, NAA) that are also home to IMN.
As required by the Russian law, LUKOIL has made economic agreements with the heads of the conventional reserves development territories in KhMAA-Yugra, as well as agreements to facilitate social and economic development of reindeer farms in NAA. The compensations include monetary payments, provision of goods, transportation, and services.
The Red Tent. Starting 2002, a unique joint medical and social project titled "The Red Tent" has been held in the Nenets Autonomous Area. The project's history dates back to the 1930s. The first argish (a reindeer hauled string of sledges) of the Red Tent project set off to the tundra back in 1929, when the Nenets Area was just created. The project servers to provide affordable medical assistance (checkups and treatment) to communities in the remote High North regions (reindeer herders and their families), whose nomadic lifestyle prevents them from seeking medical attention in stationary hospitals or municipal clinics; they also undergo diagnostic examinations in very rare cases.
The project includes visits by medical teams to reindeer herder's camping grounds and early detection of medical conditions. Each team is comprised of different specialists, including a pediatrician, a general practitioner, a surgeon, a neurologist, an ophthalmologist, an endocrinologist, an otolaryngologist, a dentist, an ultrasonographer and nurses. Besides, the families get provided with medicines, and receive first-aid training.
Over 7.5 thousand reindeer herders and their family members have received medical attention over the span of the project.
The "Red Tent" project was distinguished by experts as a success story of cooperation between the oil company and local authorities in addressing the problem of providing medical aid to nomadic reindeer herders and residents of the region's remote settlements. The project was highly praised by Mr. Leonid Mikhailovich Roshal, a renowned scholar and Director of the Emergency Paediatric and Traumatic Surgery Institute.
