Translated material
Black pipes
Oleg Mitvol calls for a ban on the construction of the oil pipeline under the Sakhalin-2 project
The Ministry of Natural Resources, as promised, has seriously and for a long time taken up the Sakhalin-2 project, in which Gazprom intends to receive a share. At the end of July, the ministry announced that from July 25 to August 20 it was going to conduct a comprehensive audit of this project, and yesterday it already announced the first results: Sakhalin-2 is environmentally dangerous, as it is threatened by mudflows. In this regard, the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, which is part of the ministry, Oleg Mitvol, took the initiative to suspend the construction of an onshore oil pipeline from the Sakhalin-2 fields until a state examination of pipe-laying projects in mudflow-prone areas is carried out. However, Mr. Mitvol’s initiative has not yet had any effect.Sakhalin-2 envisages the development of two fields - Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye - with total reserves of more than 150 million tons of oil and 500 billion cubic meters of gas. The second stage of the project is currently underway, which involves the creation of two offshore platforms, gas liquefaction plants with a capacity of 9.6 million tons per year and gas condensate processing plants, two lines of an 800-kilometer pipeline and an oil terminal. According to the Ministry of Industry and Energy, Sakhalin Energy has already contracted 98% of the future LNG.
As stated in yesterday's press release from the Ministry of Natural Resources, as part of the inspection, Rosprirodnadzor received a report from the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from which it follows that the onshore oil pipeline from the Piltun-Astokhskoye oil field, developed as part of Sakhalin-2, to the loading terminal oil in Aniva Bay could be destroyed by a mudflow at any moment. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the total length of mudflow-hazardous sections along the oil pipeline route is about 20 km, and the volume of one-time mudflows in the pipe passage area can reach 500 thousand cubic meters. At the same time, the Ministry of Natural Resources is confident that a pipeline rupture can also occur during small mudflows with a volume of up to 70 thousand cubic meters. This means that even with short rains there is a risk of an oil spill and, as a result, a threat to the environmental safety of the island. Mr. Mitvol recently visited the site of the accident at the Druzhba oil pipeline in the Bryansk region, and therefore, obviously, under the impression, he considers it necessary to radically change the approach of oil workers to the construction of transport routes.
However, only lazy officials did not criticize Sakhalin-2. After all, in this project all the participants are foreign: the controlling share - 55% - belongs to the Anglo-Dutch Shell, the Japanese Mitsui and Mitsubishi own shares of 25 and 20%, respectively. Mr. Mitvol did not stand aside either. “The significant threat of destruction of oil pipelines was the result of unskilled design decisions made by the Sakhalin Energy project operator at the feasibility study stage,” he said yesterday. As reported by the Ministry of Natural Resources, so far only the “theoretical part” of the project review has been summed up. Now specialists from Rosprirodnadzor have flown to Sakhalin to conduct an inspection at the construction site, not only of the oil pipeline, but also of the oil loading terminal. The LNG plant, it seems, will avoid meticulous inspection. “It does not threaten the ecology of Sakhalin,” the ministry said. Officials plan to receive official results of the inspection on the 20th of August. However, as you know, the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is not involved in projects concluded on production sharing terms, has already made a proposal to establish control of state companies over them, including over Sakhalin-2. It seems that now the ministry is trying to find grounds for this that meet its competence.
At Sakhalin Energy, the actions of the Ministry of Energy caused some surprise. “We have not seen any report (from the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Ed. ) to which the Ministry of Natural Resources refers,” the company notes. -- The Sakhalin-2 project passed the state examination back in 2003, and all the experts’ comments, including those on protection against mudflows, were taken into account during the design. We are constantly checked by environmentalists and independent observers, and there have been no complaints.”
Experts are confident that the activity of the Ministry of Natural Resources around Sakhalin-2 is connected with Gazprom’s desire to enter this project. In July last year, the gas concern almost agreed with Shell to exchange a 50 percent stake in its Zapolyarnoye-Neocom project for a blocking stake in Sakhalin-2. But immediately after this, the operator of Sakhalin-2 announced an almost doubling - to $20 billion - of capital costs for the project, and the monopoly was forced to suspend the exchange process until a new estimate was approved by the Ministry of Industry and Energy. As Shell said then, the company submitted the maximum possible estimate for approval. The new estimate has not yet been adopted; according to Sakhalin Energy’s business plan, the Ministry of Industry and Energy must approve it by the end of the third quarter. Shell refused to comment on the situation yesterday, citing the fact that negotiations on Gazprom's participation in the project are in full swing.
The Ministry of Natural Resources assures that the inspections are “just the work of Rosprirodnadzor and there is no market situation here.” However, such active activity of the ministry and its member agencies in relation to Sakhalin-2 suggests that there is now active trading between Gazprom and Shell on each item of the project estimate. At the same time, the state is using a long-proven method of pressure - Rosprirodnadzor. And Sakhalin Energy, as the company jokes, continues to spend $100 per second.