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Troubled Sakhalin energy project faces new environmental surveys
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 09 26 06
Russia's natural resources ministry said Monday it had ordered a new round of environmental inspections at a giant Shell-led energy project that has already had its environmental permit revoked.
The inspections will take place at worksites for Sakhalin-2, a 20-billion-dollar (15.8-billion-euro) oil and gas project off Russia's Pacific coast that has come under pressure from Russian authorities for alleged environmental violations and cost overruns.
A number of ministries, including the natural resources and emergency situations ministries, will conduct the inspections from September 25 to October 20, the natural resources ministry said in a statement.
"We're not talking about revoking licenses as a result of this inspection," Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev was quoted in the statement as saying.
Last week, the ministry withdrew a key environmental permit for Sakhalin-2, the world's largest private energy project, signalling that work should be halted.
The decision provoked protest from European and Japanese authorities and was widely interpreted by analysts to be linked to Shell's doubling of the project's cost projection last year, which brought bitter complaint from Russian authorities.
Trutnev said, however, that the new inspections had only environmental motivations.
"We don't have the goal of influencing the project's economic terms," Trutnev said.
"We are worried about information from international and Russian environmental organizations ... about environmental problems that have appeared in the course of Sakhalin-2's development."
While the energy companies concerned have expressed dismay at the action on Sakhalin by Russian authorities, international environmental groups including Greenpeace and the Worldwide Fund for Nature have applauded the moves.
Shell owns a 55-percent stake in Sakhalin-2, and Japanese firms Mitsui and Co and Mitsubishi Corp hold the remainder.
AFP 25 1504 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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