The livelihood of the Nenets people who live along the northern stretches of the Yenisei, Russia’s longest river, depends on two pursuits: fishing and reindeer herding.

But locals have said both of those activities are under threat from an oil terminal due to be built on the Tanalau cape, near where the river empties into the Arctic Ocean. Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have protested against the high risk of an oil spill in difficult Arctic conditions. More than 40 people have signed a letter of protest to the company building the terminal, the Independent Petroleum Company (IPC).

“They should drill oil, but need to do so in an orderly manner,” said a resident of Baikalovsk, the village closest to the terminal site, who refused to give a name for fear of repercussions at work. “The reindeer will go further away, that’s OK, we’ll find them, but if we foul up the Yenisei, it will be a catastrophe.”

The Tanalau terminal is part of a rush to develop oil fields in the far north as production declines in western Siberia. President Vladimir Putin opened Gazprom Neft’s Arctic Gate in May, one of three oil terminals in the Russian Arctic, which ramped up shipments to nearly 250,000 barrels a day this summer.

The terminal is adjacent to a site where a joint venture by the Russian state oil champion Rosneft and BP plan to begin drilling exploratory wells this spring. A BP spokesman said it was too early to say whether oil discovered there could be transported through the terminal. IPC did not reply to requests for comment.

Satellite imagery and a Greenpeace expedition to Tanalau in August found that much of the tundra nearby had been torn up by tank tread vehicles, which can’t follow the same track to a drilling site twice due to the swampy ground. The damage lasts for years and drives away reindeer.

Tundra torn up by tank tread vehicles near the Tanalau terminal site. Ecosystems may not be able to recover for decades. Photograph: Petr Shelomovskiy/Greenpeace

In addition, experts at the Institute of Arctic Agriculture and Environment have said construction at Tanalau “raises the danger of an outbreak of infection” from two graveyards containing anthrax, similar to one that killed a boy in Salekhard this summer.

Even more troubling is the risk of an oil spill on the river, where ice typically grows up to 1.8 metres (6ft) in thickness and wind speeds can reach 45 metres per second in the winter. In September 2013, the tanker Nordvik was punctured by ice while carrying 5,000 tonnes of diesel fuel in the Arctic Ocean not far from the mouth of the Yenisei and waited more than a week for assistance.

ICP has not presented a plan for cleaning up oil spills, and its environmental impact report for the terminal lists safety equipment, such as containment booms, that is not suitable for the harsh conditions, Greenpeace and WWF said. A November letter from the Krasnoyarsk region government to Greenpeace said a cleanup plan “is being developed” by IPC for the terminal.

Reflection of reindeer in a camp of herders on the left bank of the Yenisei River. Photograph: Petr Shelomovskiy/Greenpeace

Last week, the WWF ranked IPC 18 out of 21 in its annual rating of the environmental responsibility of Russian oil and gas companies.

“We share the worries about the high level of risk involved in building this terminal on the Yenisei,” said Alexei Knizhnikov of the WWF. “We are mainly concerned with the lack of technology to clean up an oil spill in watery conditions, in Arctic conditions.”