update: Kerch Strait oil spill

Too bad I have no regular readers! Cuz this is a followup of a story I covered.

Why did I cover it?

Becuz the Russians are just MORE and BIGGER earth polluters than many.

Look at this mess! Very very scary stuff. Money will NOT bring back those dead birds.

It rivals the mess made in Korea .. the one the NYT's doesn't bring up anymore that will take 12 YEARS minimum to fix ..

And do you REALLY think that Russia will play fair and protect marine life at Sakhalin-2 as pressure for oil and gas crank up? Probably not, unless people MAKE them.

Support your local environmentalist organizations on these issues.

Time is running short to keep any water clean, anywhere ..

Have no fear that they don't have the money to pay!! The Russian mob just ripped off $8 bn from SocGen and that's just one of the plots to keep that ole Treasury over in Moskva propped up. Just the "cost of doing business" ..

Hey! I give a monthly donation to Greenpeace? How about YOU? I am PROUD to do so, too. They don't just hunt whales, you know.

Veeger

		World
		Ukraine to charge Russia $1bln for Kerch Strait oil spill
		12:25 | 19/ 03/ 2008

SIMFEROPOL, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine plans to charge Russian ship-owners over $1 billion in damages for a November fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait, the press office of the Ukrainian government said on Wednesday.

A storm in the Kerch Strait, which joins the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, sank four ships and an oil tanker on November 11. The incident resulted in about 2,000 metric tons of fuel oil spilling into the sea.

Experts said petrochemical concentrations in the Kerch Strait following the storm were 50 times higher than maximum permissible levels. Some 50,000 birds have so far died as a result of the oil slick. The fuel penetrates birds' plumage causing hypothermia, and is ingested, usually with fatal results.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov claimed late in December that all traces of November's disaster in the Kerch Strait had been eliminated, but Greenpeace said the consequences of fuel spill in the Kerch Strait could take up to a decade to be eliminated.

The government of Ukraine's Black Sea autonomy of Crimea has allocated 2 million hryvna ($400,000) for disposal of spilled fuel collected in the Kerch Strait.

Sakahlian watch - NONenvironmental Russia plans $5 billion dollar investment

Found in the Vancouver Sun - just what the planet does not need -

Putin's plan to host APEC coming apart at the seams

Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun

Russia's president-in-waiting Dmitry Medvedev came close to losing his cool a few days ago as he listened to a seemingly endless catalogue of excuses for why preparations to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in 2012 are behind schedule.

Russky Island, a 98-square-kilometre outcrop of evil reputation in the Sea of Japan several kilometers offshore from Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok, has been hand-picked by President Vladimir Putin as the site for the 25-nation APEC leaders summit.

Putin has a vision of turning the island, until recently a secret military facility, into a massive resort complex whose construction, together with the international attention of the APEC summit, will help spark investment in and development of the entire Russian Far East.

Moscow sees this as an urgent issue as neighbouring and booming China takes an ever-increasing interest in the region's massive reserves of natural resources. Illegal Chinese immigration to the Russian Far East and cross-border smuggling are almost out of control.

So the Putin government has earmarked about $5 billion for investment in various infrastructure and construction projects focused on the APEC summit, but which will also bring long-term benefit to this neglected region.

But getting the various bureaucrats and state-owned companies involved to attack the agenda with the same sense of purpose felt by Putin has not been easy.

Thus it was that Medvedev, currently first deputy prime minister but sure to be elected president in two weeks time, was dispatched to the regional city of Khabarovsk to knock heads.

And there are plenty of heads that need knocking, from a Moscow point of view. The local daily newspaper commented that "it seemed at times that Medvedev was on the verge of losing his patience."

Another newspaper report tells of Medvedev trying to get some explanation from a local bureaucrat and a representative of the state-owned pipeline construction company Transneft about the progress of a pipeline from the Baikal oil and gas producing region to Kazmino near Vladivostok. The line is only 46-per-cent complete when 67 per cent of the project should have been finished by this time.

Medvedev was not impressed when the officials mumbled on about the need for various appraisals.

"This project is crucial for the Far East," Medvedev interjected. "All this talk about why and where and what's happening to the paperwork is just pathetic."

Medvedev's patience was tested equally on the question of delays in reaching an agreement to build a natural gas pipeline to Vladivostok from production facilities on Sakhalin Island off Russia's Pacific coast.

A test of wills is going on between two huge Russian state-controlled operations, the GazProm energy company and the Rosneft oil company.

At issue is whether the pipeline and gas should come from GazProm's Sakhalin-2 project or from the Sakhalin-1 site in which Rosneft has a 20-per-cent share with principal owner ExxonMobil.

What is clear is that neither GazProm nor Rosneft are keen to shoulder the task of getting gas to Vladivostok, certain they will lose money on the deal. They have been taking every opportunity to delay making a joint-venture agreement.

Medvedev's irritation was evident when he told them "get on with completing your negotiations. Agree a commercial solution -- and build."

And despite Putin's declaration that he wants to see Russky island as the site of the 2012 APEC summit, it remains uncertain that this will be possible or, indeed, sensible.

Moscow has its own share of guilt in this. The island is still owned by the ministry of defence and arrangements have yet to be made to transfer title to Vladivostok so APEC construction projects can start.

And there are reports that people living on the island -- it's unclear exactly how many there are -- are not at all happy about the APEC-associated development.

They say the island already has a serious litter problem because of visitors from Vladivostok. They expect this problem will increase once the planned bridge to the island is built and they fear being evicted to make way for APEC projects.

But the bridge appears to be a big concern. It is noticeable in local newspaper reports that both Putin and Medvedev have been unable to get straight answers from local officials about whether a bridge to Russky Island can be built in time or is feasible at all.

Reports have begun to de-emphasize the island and stress that it is Vladivostok that is hosting APEC, so it may be that the Russky islanders will be left in happy seclusion.

jmanthorpe@png.canwest.com

Read Jonathan Manthorpe's blog at http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/dispatches/default. asp

Gazprom 'working hard' to deliver to Japan - executive

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Russian gas giant Gazprom said Friday it was 'working hard' to start gas supplies for Japanese firms from its major Sakhalin-2 project amid a report of a delay.

'Although the supplies contracts were signed before we joined the project, we are working hard to provide LNG (liquid natural gas) supplies as agreed in the contracts,' Gazprom's deputy board chairman Alexander Annenkov told a press conference in Tokyo.

He declined to give a specific date.

He is visiting Japan to woo potential investors and engineering and chemical firms to take part in a massive pipeline project, which would develop and link gas field across Russia, especially in Siberia.

Gazprom is the majority shareholder in the consortium developing the Sakhalin-2 reserves.

It took charge this year after the other partners in the project -- British-Dutch energy major Shell and Japanese trading houses Mitsui and Mitsubishi Corp (other-otc: MSBHY.PK - news - people ) -- agreed to sell shares under pressure from the Kremlin.

Japan would be the key customer of Sakhalin-2 as Asia's largest economy has virtually no natural energy resources of its own.

But there have been fears of delay because of disputes last year between the consortium and the Russian government before Gazprom's entry.

Alexander Khoroshavin, governor of Russia's Sakhalin island north of Japan, was quoted as saying on Friday by Interfax news agency that the project will miss the 2008 planned start date.

'The initial projects of Sakhalin-2 foresaw LNG deliveries in 2008, but the company has encountered certain difficulties in the pipeline construction,' Khoroshavin said.

'The delay means the deliveries will not begin in 2008' and can only start in the spring of 2009, he said.

Khoroshavin said the problems affect the 800-kilometer (500-mile) pipeline meant to take gas from the north-east of Sakhalin island to a port in the south, where the LNG is then exported by ship to Japan.

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Forwarned is forearmed: Sakhalin-2

Concerns Arise Over Bridging Supplies if Sakhalin 2 is Delayed

Customers of Russia's Sakhalin 2 liquefaction project are becoming increasingly concerned that the project will not be able to find bridging supplies if the start-up date is delayed, sources close to the project said Dec 6.

Liquefaction projects often buy LNG from other sources to meet contractual commitments to customers if their planned start-up dates are delayed. Such deliveries are called bridging supplies.

The sources told Platts that the first shipments from the Sakhalin 2 project in far eastern Russia could be delayed until the spring of 2009 from the planned startup of December 2008.

Project operator Sakhalin Energy previously said it expected the project to start as scheduled, but on Dec 6 a Moscow spokesman for the company said he could not comment on the start-up date.

Sakhalin Energy has said that 98% of the planned 9.6 million mt/yr of output has been sold under long-term contracts, with 60% going to Japanese customers. Japan is about 900 miles away from the liquefaction plant being completed on Sakhalin Island.

The rest of the supplies are earmarked for South Korea and North America's West Coast, although some of the North American supplies could likely be diverted to higher-paying markets in Asia.

While long-term LNG contracts to Asian customers typically lack destination flexibility, if commercial deliveries from Sakhalin 2 are delayed Sakhalin Energy might be forced to pay for or procure alternative supplies with "ship-or-pay" contracts, the sources said.

"It might be difficult for Sakhalin Energy to find the alternative fuel in the period," said one source, referring to the time between the planned start-up and expected delay of the LNG shipments.

More on the link.