Environmental groups are withholding judgment on the deal struck Thursday between Shell and Russia in which the government-controlled Gazprom apparently acquires a majority stake in the problem-plagued Sakhalin II oil and gas project.[1]
‘We hope the deal includes prescriptive remedies to the well-documented pattern of environmental violations that Shell has committed on this project,’ said Dmitry Lisitsyn, Chairman of Sakhalin Environment Watch, a local organization that has exposed violations at the Sakhalin II Project for 10 years. These violations include damage to fisheries including hundreds of wild salmon-bearing streams and tributaries, threats to the critically endangered Western Gray Whale, and other long-term concerns.[2]
‘Regardless of whether Shell or Gazprom is the majority shareholder, this project must be seriously revised and improved if it is to comply with Russian law and international standards and protect the salmon and fisheries resources on which the people of Sakhalin depend,’ said David Gordon, Executive Director of Pacific Environment, a U.S.-based NGO that monitors development projects around the Pacific Rim.
Although construction of Sakhalin-II is largely complete, the operation phase of the project carries high risks, including the potential for chronic pollution and for a catastrophic oil spill. Gazprom will now join Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui in being responsible for damage caused by the project.
‘Given the fact that a Shell-contracted dredger has already caused an oil spill,[3] and that Shell has not even disclosed comprehensive oil spill response plans, we continue to be worried about management of the project,’ said Doug Norlen, Policy Director at Pacific Environment.
As the majority stakeholder, Gazprom is expected to exert influence over fiscal and marketing aspects of the project, but environmental groups say it must also now bear responsibility for the project’s management in the future.
‘By making this deal, Gazprom is now on the environmental hook, along with Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui,’ said Norlen.
Despite three months of investigations by Russian authorities that have uncovered massive environmental violations at the Sakhalin II project, environmental groups charge that the environmental situation at Sakhalin-II has not changed for the better. ‘Sakhalin Energy refused government orders to halt pipeline construction in geologically dangerous areas,’ charged Lisitsyn. ‘Sakhalin Energy hasn’t cleaned up its huge waste piles that are illegally sited and threatens massive pollution of salmon streams in the next year. And Sakhalin Energy will still have to pay for damages to fisheries in Aniva Bay.’
‘While negotiating with Gazprom, Shell and Sakhalin Energy have done nothing to clean up their act,’ said Gordon.
Environmental groups voiced concern about President Vladimir Putin’s comments on Thursday that environmental problems with the Sakhalin II project have been resolved. ‘There’s a long way to go,’ said Lisitsyn. ‘Gazprom, Shell, and the other shareholders will have to change the Sakhalin-II project to make it better. We will continue working to make sure these changes are implemented, just as we have over the last 10 years.’
[1] The enormous Sakhalin II oil and gas project will include two offshore oil and one offshore gas platform, subsea pipelines, 800 kilometers of on-shore pipelines, a liquid natural gas plant, and oil and gas export terminals. At a cost of over billion, Sakhalin II is said by project sponsors to be the largest integrated oil and gas project in the world.
[2] For more information on Sakhalin II environmental problems see:
http://www.sakhalin.environment.ru/en/
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php’list=type&type=63
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/where/russia/sakhalin/index.cfm
[3]In September, 2004, the Shell-contracted dredger, Christoforo Colombo, grounded at the Sakhalin port city of Kholmsk, dumping its load of fuel oil, despoiling a nearby beach, and sending many local residents to the hospital with respiratory problems.
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Protecting the Living Environment of the Pacific Rim:
David Gordon
Executive Director
Pacific Environment
Tel: (415) 399-8850 x 301
Cell: (510) 541-5334
Fax: (415) 399-8860
E-mail: dkgordon@pacificenvironment.org
Web: www.pacificenvironment.org
