26 November 2003 11:41
U.S.-based conservation groups said Wednesday they have urged Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to rigorously review funding the expansion of an oil and gas development project off Sakhalin Island in Russia`s Far East which they say thr
Following similar moves by three bipartisan lawmakers, 11 groups submitted a letter Tuesday to Ex-Im Bank President
Philip Merrill in a bid to protect the western Pacific gray whale, which they say is critically endangered.
The moves came in response to an application by Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., a consortium led by oil giant Royal
Dutch/Shell Group and including Japanese trading houses Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co., for the bank to finance
the project's second phase, they said.
The Sakhalin 2 project, launched in 1986, began commercial oil production under the first phase in 1999. Natural gas
output is planned for 2006. Total investment is estimated at $9 billion to $10 billion.
"Among the project's potential impacts, perhaps the most alarming is its imperilment of the critically
endangered western Pacific gray whale, a population that has been reduced to about 130 animals," according to the
letter the groups publicized over the Internet.
If the consortium has its way, four pipelines would be routed through the whales' feeding grounds and one of the
world's largest production plants for liquid natural gas would be constructed, resulting in a yearly discharge of
more than 500,000 tons of contaminated run-off, they said.
"We believe it is incumbent on Ex-Im Bank, before committing itself financially, to continue to take the hard
look at the project's impacts that its environmental policies and U.S. law require," it said. "We
believe...funding it would be inconsistent with bank policies and with U.S. law."
The groups consist of the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Earth Island Institute,
Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Natural
Resources Defense Council, Pacific Environment, Sakhalin Environment Watch, and the World Wildlife Fund.
The lawmakers include congressman Jim Greenwood, a Republican from Pennsylvania.
[AIW [Asia Africa Intelligence Wire]] |
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