A little oil in cold water

Sakhalin-2 faces a fine of 10 to 200 thousand rubles

Rosprirodnadzor completed an inspection of the Sakhalin-2 project and found that the project operator Sakhalin Energy in March-November 2005 allowed water discharges into the sea from the Okha production oil storage facility and the Molikpaq platform in excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of petroleum products. As Nikolai Nam, deputy head of the Rosprirodnadzor department for the Sakhalin region, told Interfax yesterday, the MPC was exceeded by 9.6%. A total of 7.8 million cubic meters were discharged last year, while the maximum permissible discharge volume is 7.1 million cubic meters. In addition, according to Rosprirodnadzor, the company committed a number of violations when disposing of drilling waste and did not submit statistical reports on water consumption and wastewater disposal at onshore facilities on time. According to Mr. Nam, the inspection report has already been submitted to Sakhalin Energy for review and signing. If necessary, the company can appeal the commission's findings. If she fails, the inspection materials will be sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources. At the same time, according to the official, administrative proceedings will be initiated against the company, which could result in fines ranging from 10 to 200 thousand rubles.

The central office of Rosprirodnadzor could not confirm Vremya Novostey's findings. “We are waiting for the results after August 25 and we don’t know the results of the inspection yet,” the department’s press service said. The Sakhalin Energy press service declined to comment.

Rosprirodnadzor began a comprehensive inspection of Sakhalin-2 on July 25 by order of the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev. And already in early August, the deputy head of the agency, Oleg Mitvol, said that the project was environmentally dangerous, since the pipeline being built as part of Sakhalin-2 was not sufficiently protected from mudflows, and demanded that its construction be suspended. The next day, Rosprirodnadzor announced that it intended to appeal in court the positive conclusion of the state examination on the Sakhalin-2 project, issued by Sakhalin Energy back in 2003.

The claims of Rosprirodnadzor look at least strange, since shortly before the start of a comprehensive inspection, the same agency conducted an annual desk inspection of the only operating production complex of the Vityaz project, which includes the Molikpaq platform and the Okha terminal. Based on its results, on July 27, Sakhalin Energy was issued an act (its text is available to Vremya Novostei), in which the company’s work was recognized as satisfactory and it was stated that no violations of environmental legislation were identified during the implementation of the project.

At the same time, the activity of Rosprirodnadzor is quite understandable. Projects of this scale (hydrocarbon reserves in the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye fields of the project reach 150 million tons of oil and 500 billion cubic meters of gas) always arouse increased interest among regulatory and supervisory authorities, as well as various public organizations. An example is the same project of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, when its operator, the state-owned Transneft, twice made concessions to environmentalists. The situation with Sakhalin is further aggravated by the fact that only foreign companies are participating in the project: the Anglo-Dutch concern Shell (55%), Japanese Mitsui (25%) and Mitsubishi (20%), which deprives it of a strong administrative resource. Analysts drew attention to the fact that the inspections coincided with negotiations on Gazprom’s entry into the project, which was supposed to take place in July last year, but was postponed due to an almost doubling of the cost estimate, to $20 billion. It is expected that the new estimate will be approved in the third quarter of this year.

Anna GORSHKOVA