Archived press release

No public money for Shell's Sakhalin project

28 February 2006

	Shell's new drilling platform and pipeline threaten the survival of the endangered Western Pacific Grey Whale.

Last Western Pacific Grey Whales Threatened By Shell's Oil and Gas Project.

Public money must not be used to fund the destruction of the last remaining population of Western Pacific Grey Whales, environmental campaigners will today (Tuesday 28 February) tell the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Friends of the Earth will be among environmental groups raising concerns at a consultation meeting organised by public-funded bank to discuss funding for Shell's massive oil and gas project on Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East.

The oil giant is requesting $300 million of taxpayers' money to help fund a new oil platform and pipeline near to the summer feeding grounds of the Western Pacific Grey Whale.

Experts say that the development could be disastrous for the whales, with just 100 of the mammals known to be alive.

Friends of the Earth Sakhalin Campaigner Mary Taylor said:

"Yet again, Shell has clearly put oil and profits before environmental protection. The Bank should be ashamed to be even considering this project which breaches the very environmental standards it says it requires.

"EBRD should not be using public money to fund dirty fossil fuel projects which do little to develop the economies they are supposed to help and yet which lock us further into a destructive cycle of fuelling climate change. The bank should switch off the oil and gas funds and spend our money on clean green renewable energy instead."

Work has already begun on the construction of Sakhalin II, the world's biggest oil and gas extraction project, despite warnings from an international panel of scientists convened by the World Conservation Union that the works threaten the already critically endangered Western Pacific Grey Whale. Scientists believe that the loss of even just one breeding female a year would be enough to cause extinction of the species.

People on the island are also concerned by on-shore work to build an 800 km pipeline which will carry oil and gas from the platform. The route of the pipe crosses valuable salmon spawning grounds - which feed the island's valuable fishing industry. Local environmentalists have documented many instances of bad construction practice causing mud and silt to damage the water quality. Millions of tonnes of dredging spoils have been also been dumped in the important fishing waters of Aniva Bay in the south of the island.

The London meeting is the first in the series of consultation meetings being held by the EBRD before its final decision on funding for the project is announced. Meetings will also take place in Japan, Russia and on Sakhalin Island itself.

Note

[1] The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is hosting the meeting on Tuesday, February 28, at the Park Plaza Hotel, 239 Vauxhall Bridge Road, SW1. Registration begins at 1400. Campaigners from Friends of the Earth, Wildlife and Countryside Link, Campaign Whale, IFAW, Marine Connection, and WWF will be outside the meeting handing out leaflets to highlight the whales' plight.

Further details:
www.ebrd.com/country/sector/natural/projects/sakhalin/london.htm

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust