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Sakhalin's rolling green hills are crawling with Texans and sport utility vehicles as the world's biggest oil companies survey the island's vast oil and gas deposits... As multinational energy companies promised $40 billion to develop the oil, the fish-shaped island came to symbolize big oil and big money.-Jeanne Whalen, On
the island of Sakhalin, in the southwestern corner
of the Sea of Okhotsk, a development project to tap
offshore oil reserves threatens important marine
and terrestrial habitats. While the planned oil
exploitation offers potential riches to the region
over the long term, the project could also damage
many of' the other natural resources upon which
local economies depend especially fish and crab.
Although Russia's recent financial crisis has sent
many foreign investors packing, international
corporations in the region seem undeterred by the
setback and are mov ing ahead with the projects,
known as "Sakhalin I, II, and Ill." Moscow, too,
supports the development, as the Russian federal
government sees the "black gold" as a major
resource to be developed for hard currency. The Russian
federal and Sakhalin regional govern ments plan to
tender up to twelve different areas on the
continental shelf of Sakhalin Island for offshore
exploration and development. Sakhalin-l and
Sakhalin-lI have been the first of these twelve
projects to move forward. (Please see the map on
page 18, which shows the location of these
projects). They epitomize the dangers of quick
foreign investment without stringent environmental
controls. A number of
deficiencies were found in the Sakhalin II project
when the San Francisco-based Pacific Environment
and Resources Center (PERC) and other environmental
groups organized an independent analysis of the
Environmental Impact Assessment. For example, the
companies are refusing to use Best Available
Technology, which would require the rein Jection of
drilling muds and cuttings and produced waters into
the oil formation. Now, the companies plan to dump
these polluting wastes into the ocean, although
this practice is currently forbidden by Russian law
and studies have shown that such dumping has a
negative impact on biological marine
resources. Environmental
specialists also worry about adequate oil spill
response and mitigation plans and capabilities in
the event of a catastrophic spill. There is little
evidence that, by the time of planned first oil
production in the summer of 1999, Sakhalin Island
will have enough resources and trained personnel in
place to respond to a disaster such as Alaska's
1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound. A
spill like the size of the Exxon Valdez in the
Sakhalin Island area could reach all the way to the
shores of Hokkaido, thus damaging Japan's rich
northern fisheries (please refer to accompanying
map "Oil and Gas Development on Sakhalin Island
Threatens Russian and Japanese Coastlines"). Climactic
conditions in the Sea of Okhotsk are severe. Ice
movement and high seas make oil development a risky
venture. With greatly increased tanker traffic
between Sakhalin Island and Japan in difficult
weath er conditions, some observers believe that
the likeli hood of a major spill is high. Russian
government officials acknowledge that the currents
of the Sea of Okhotsk have been poorly studied, and
that the data available is insufficient to
determine oil spill behavior. Some Russian
officials also acknowledge that there has not been
enough scientific study to determine the condition
of fisheries in the area and the potential damage
to fisheries from oil development. Ecojuris, the
Moscow-based public interest environ mental law
firm, believes that the Russian government and
international financial institutions have acted
illegally by approving an inadequate Environmental
Impact Statement for Sakhalin-II. In a letter to
Viktor Ivanovich Danilov-Danilyan. Chair of the
State Committee for the Protection of the
Environment. Ecojuris President Dr. Vera Mischenko
writes that the project's approval cannot be
considered lawful and threatens to appeal the
decision in court. Oil
and Gas Development on The
1989 Exxon Valdez catastrophe, which
spilled 40,000 tons of oil into Prince
William Sound, severely The
figure at right represents an area equal
in size* to the total area
affected by she Exxon Valez oil
spill** The
dashed line represents more than 1,700 km
of coastline that would be threatened by
an oil spill. *The
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill area includes the
maximum extent of oiled shorelines,
severely affected communities and adjacent
uplands. Note
this map is a comparison of Spill area. it
is not a model of spill behavior.
©
Pacific
Environment and Reources Center,
1998. Map
provided courtesy of Pacific Environment
and Resources Center |
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An
Excerpt From...
impacted the peo ple, environment and
economy of Alaska.
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