When completed, the Sakhalin II export terminal will be the largest of its type in the world. Click on photo to enlarge.

Sakhalin is a Russian island that is located about 50 miles north of Japan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s, multi-national oil and gas companies wasted little time in exploring the waters around the island for oil and gas. It is now one of the leading oil and gas producing regions in Russia, and almost all of what is being produced is for the export market.

Natural gas is a by-product of the crude oil that is being extracted from Sakhalin. Despite industry claims to the contrary, getting natural gas from beneath the ocean floor has proven to be a dirty and dangerous process. Sakhalin’s oil and gas is being drilled from two huge off-shore oil platforms, one operated primarily by ExxonMobil (the Sakhalin I project), and the other primarily by Gazprom, Shell and Mitsubishi (the Sakhalin II project). Sakhalin II would be a potential supplier of the Shell/Sempra import terminal at Costa Azul in Baja California.

Both of these platforms are located in a pristine marine habitat, and can potentially impact the only feeding ground of the critically endangered Western Pacific Gray Whale. There are about only 100 of these magnificent creatures alive, and the health of the surviving whales is being seriously compromised. Scientists studying the whales have observed malnourished, or “skinny,” whales in the area. These scientists are concerned that continued oil and gas drilling adjacent to whale habitat, tanker traffic, and underwater pipeline construction could push the last of this dying breed into extinction.

Gazprom is now building massive infrastructure to get the oil and gas to markets abroad. This involves laying underwater oil and gas pipelines that will run right through whale feeding habitat, as well as through the home of many other species of fish, and on to the shores of Sakhalin. Environmentalists and local fishermen are very concerned that the construction of these pipelines could seriously disrupt this habitat, and that the pipeline could leak and contaminate the waters.

Once on the island, the oil and gas would be sent through parallel pipelines that will run the length of Sakhalin Island, over 800 kilometers, to its southern tip. Along its route, the pipeline will cross over 1,000 streams and rivers. Hundreds of these waterways provide spawning grounds for wild salmon, and together they contribute to one of the most robust salmon habitats in the world. The pipeline crossings will gouge right through the beds of these streams, with very little concern given to the well-being of the salmon, or the local economy and community that depends on the salmon for a substantial part of their diet.

The Sakhalin II project is dependent upon the public’s money for its construction. The U.S. Export-Import Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are currently considering financing the further development of the Sakhalin II project, including the gas pipeline and the regasification terminal.

Learn more:

Pacific Environment

Sakhalin Environment Watch