Ecology-minded Russian official may hobble Sakhalin development

摘要

Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, Russia's-environmental protection agency, has been waging a campaign against the Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the Russian Far East, in which Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shall is the major investor. Shell is a 55 per cent partner in Sakhalin Energy Investment, which is drilling for natural gas off the coast of remote Sakhalin Island. Mitsubishi and iitsui, of Japan, are the other key shareholders. On 19 September the Russian government cancelled an environmental permit for Shell's 20 billion dollars project, threatening suspension of the work. This involves building drilling platforms off Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. Pipelines from those platforms run the length of the pristine island, crossing 1,000 watercourses. The World Wildlife Federation, an environmental group, has also raised strong objections to the project.