31 October 2003 07:49
Russian oil & gas project alarms World Wildlife Fund
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Friday expressed fears that an oil and gas project off
Russia's Sakhalin Island threatens rare animal and plant species.
"The project operator, Sakhalin Energy company, which does not
wish to comply with more expensive, world-level environmental
The Sakhalin-2 project, which involves the construction of floating oil platforms and the laying of pipelines, might
set off "an environmental disaster" on the island, the head of the WWF's Moscow office, Igor Chestin,
told a news conference in Moscow.
standards, is going as far as extremely gross violations of Russian legislation," he said.
The British-Dutch company Royal Dutch/Shell holds a 55% stake,
Japan's Mitsui a 25% stake, and Japan's Mitsubishi a 20% stake in
The environmentalists' greatest concern is the location of one of the platforms and the route of the underwater
section of a pipeline that threaten gray whales, which have a population of only 100 and a low survival rate.
The pipeline's land section would cross about 200 rivers on Sakhalin that are used by salmon as spawning
grounds. "It is clear that with the method of construction that has been planned, one can forget about the
salmon," Chestin said.
The Sakhalin-2 project is based on a production sharing agreement and involves developing the Piltun-Astokhskoye oil
field and the Lunskoye gas field. The recoverable reserves are 185 million tonnes of oil and 800 billion cubic meters of
gas. Oil production began in summer 1999.
Sakhalin Energy. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG ENV OIL CRU ELG ENR GB NL WEU JP ASIA] as tl <>
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