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sakhalin resources
EBRD's Credibility Gap
22 May 2006
Environmentalists and campaigners,
including Friends of the Earth groups, have
presented a dossier of evidence about
environmental problems with the Shell's
Sakhalin II at the EBRD's annual meeting.
Campaigners also presented the EBRD's
President with 10,000 signatures collected
from people on the island calling on the Bank
to deny financial support to Shell.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD) is a bank that proclaims
to ‘promote environmental sensitivity' - yet
it is on the brink of giving high profile
support to a project that is ripping up the
pristine landscape of Sakhalin Island
(situated between Russia and Japan) and
destroying local communities and livelihoods
in the name of profit, power and progress.
Sakhalin II, Phase 2, is an oil and gas
project, lead by Shell, and it plans to
extract oil and gas year round off Sakhalin
Island, even in frozen seas.
The EBRD is about to back a project that
is:
-
Infringing on the feeding grounds of
the rare
Western Gray
Whale
, believed to be extinct
until 1973. Of little more than 100
whales left, only around 20 are breeding
females.
-
Laying two 800km-long
pipelines
for oil and gas down
the length of Sakhalin island whose
terrain is:
-
-
Prone to
earthquakes:
ten
years ago, a quake measuring 7.5 on
the Richter scale killed 2,000 people
in the town of Neftegorsk.
-
Prone to typhoons and extremely
harsh weather conditions
-
Littered with
unexploded
ordnance.
-
Disrupting the local
community
, taking locals away
from their natural independent
livelihood: fishing. The pipelines cross
1,000 rivers, streams and brooks,
interfering with salmon spawning and
harming the island's fishing industry.
Serious damage to a significant number of
these economically vital rivers continues
to be discovered by
Sakhalin
Environment Watch
.
-
Failing to fully address
impacts on the indigenous
peoples
before construction.
Local communities practice a traditional
self-subsistence economy based on
fishing, hunting, reindeer herding and
wild plant gathering. The EBRD has
admitted that the indigenous people's
impact assessment has not been produced
in conformity with Bank policy.
-
Exploiting oil and gas reserves
year-round
, including
in frozen seas. The project will access
fossil fuels which will produce over a
billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, an
important greenhouse gas which is driving
climate change.
-
Unprepared for the event of an
oil spill
under ice. In
2004 an estimated 1,300 barrels of fuel
were spilled at ice-free Kholmsk. It took
nine hours for their oil spill emergency
response contractor to arrive and conduct
visual observations, and more than 48
hours for it to transport necessary
equipment to the site.
-
Run by Shell, who made
$23
billion profit
in 2005,and who
have ignored scientific advice while
constructing platforms and pipelines at
Sakhalin. Shell is the lead company
(55%), Mitsui and Mitsubishi are its
partners in the Sakhalin Energy
Investment Company.
Act now
Join the 10,000
local inhabitants who strongly oppose the
Sakhalin Energy project and have signed a
petition demanding to cancel the EBRD loan -
send your email to the EBRD.
Sakhalin II Phase 2 is being seen as the
"gateway to the Arctic" – a whole host of oil
and gas projects in far northern seas are
likely to follow, with grave implications for
ecosystems in places such as the Barents Sea.
Instead of supporting fossil fuel projects,
the Bank should be setting a vigorous agenda
for renewable energy and helping us to avoid
catastrophic climate change.
find out more
About
Sakhalin
island
.
Dirty dossier
on Shell's Sakhalin II
Project presented to funders.
Watch the video
Interactive map of the
pipeline
hotspots
.
Bankwatch's
Sakhalin page.
Boom time blues
- big oil's gender
impacts in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Sakhalin
(pdf).
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