Сахалин-2: Мұнай және газ жобасының тарихы мен эволюциясы

Oil and natural gas drilling project in Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

The Sakhalin 2 (Сахалин 2) project is an oil and gas development in Sakhalin Island, Russia. It includes development of the Piltun Astokhskoye oil field and the Lunskoye natural gas field offshore Sakhalin Island in the Okhotsk Sea, and associated infrastructure onshore. The project is managed and operated by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Sakhalin Energy). Sakhalin 2 includes the first liquefied natural gas plant in Russia. The development is situated in areas previously little touched by human activity, causing various groups to criticize the development activities and the impact they have on the local environment.

The original consortium, was a joint venture between Marathon Oil, McDermott, and Mitsubishi. They won a tender from the Russian Government in 1992. Later that year Royal Dutch Shell joined the joint venture. In 1994 the JV incorporated in Bermuda to form Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. Sakhalin Energy, led by Marathon, negotiated the first PSA directly with representatives of the Russian government. The Russian Party maintained project planning and budget approval. The initial investment decision was to proceed with the oil field development led by Marathon. McDermott sold its share to the other partners in 1997 and Marathon traded its shares to Shell for an interest in other properties (the BP operated Foinaven field, near the Shetland Islands, and an eight block area in the Gulf of Mexico—including the Ursa field) in 2000. The decision to proceed with the gas project investment was made in 2003. The expected budget increased dramatically by 2005–2006. The pipeline portion of the gas project was heavily criticized due to environmental issues. Legal proceeding on perceived violation of the Russian environmental regulations were initiated. In the result, The Russian government ordered to terminate the project in September 2006. Under legal and political pressure, the consortium was forced to sell a majority stake to Gazprom. On 21 December, Gazprom took control over a 50% plus one share stake in the project by signing an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the signing ceremony in Moscow and indicated that environmental issues had been resolved. The LNG plant was inaugurated on 18 February 2009. The first cargo was loaded to the LNG carrier Grand Aniva at the end of March 2009. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Shell said that it would exit Sakhalin 2 and other ventures in Russia. On 30 June 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ordering the transfer of the Sakhalin 2 project to a new domestic operator. Foreign investors will be required to apply to retain their existing shares in the new Russian company within a month. The Russian government will then decide whether to allow foreign shareholders to keep their stake. If they are rejected, the government will sell the foreign shareholder’s stake and keep the proceeds in the shareholder’s special account. In April 2023, the Russian government approved the sale of Shell's 27.5% stake to Novatek for RUB 94.8 billion. At the same time, Novatek secured the consent of President Putin so that Shell could withdraw these funds from Russia. As marine insurance policies come up for renewal, the Japanese government has asked non life insurance companies to offer war coverage to LNG shippers in Russian waters. Sakhalin II has been exempted from sanctions by the UK and US governments until 28 June 2024.

The Molikpaq drilling and oil production platform (Piltun Astokhskoye A platform) is an ice resistant structure, originally built to explore for oil in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. It had been mothballed in 1990, and was installed in the Astokh area of the Piltun Astokhskoye field, offshore, in September 1998. The Molikpaq has production capacity of of oil and 1.7 million cubic meters of associated gas.

The Lunskoye field platform was installed in June 2006 at the Lunskoye gas field offshore. It has production capacity over 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, around of peak liquids (associated water and condensate), and of oil.

The PA B platform was installed in July 2007 in the Piltun area of the Piltun Astokhskoye oil field, offshore. The PA B has production capacity of of oil and 2.8 million cubic meters of associated gas.

The onshore processing facility is located in the north east of Sakhalin Island, inland in Nogliki district. It is designed to process natural gas, condensate, and oil from the Lunskoye and the Piltun Astokhskoye fields prior to pipeline transportation to the oil export terminal and the liquefied natural gas plant in Aniva Bay in the south of Sakhalin Island.

The TransSakhalin pipeline system is designed for transportation of hydrocarbons from the Piltun Astokhskoye and Lunskoye fields in the North of Sakhalin Island to the onshore processing facility in the Nogliki district and to the LNG plant and the oil export terminal in Aniva Bay.

The oil export terminal is located in Aniva Bay to the east of the LNG plant. It includes the export pipeline and the tanker loading unit, where oil loading to tankers is performed.

Sakhalin Energy looked for finances from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. However, on 11 January 2007 EBRD withdrew its consideration of financing for Sakhalin 2, claiming that Gazprom's acquisition of the controlling stake of Sakhalin 2 resulted in a to the project making it is unfeasible for the EBRD to pursue the current project. Meanwhile, environmental organizations contend that Sakhalin II had "chronically and substantially violated EBRD's environmental policy". The consortium applied for nearly a billion dollars in financing from the public export credit agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom, but in early March 2008 these applications were withdrawn due to the drawn out and uncertain decision making process] by these banks. However, environmental groups contend that the drawn out process was due to the fact that the company failed to demonstrate compliance with these public banks' environmental policies. In June 2008 Sakhalin Energy signed Russia's largest project finance deal, securing a loan of US$5.3 billion from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and a consortium of international banks. Japan Bank for International Cooperation provided $3.7 billion of the funds. In October 2009 Sakhalin Energy secured an additional $1.4 billion in project financing, bringing the total Phase 2 project financing up to $6.7 billion. The additional debt was provided by a consortium of international commercial banks and insured by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), an Export Credit Agency owned by the Japanese government.

In July 2005, a Russian court upheld the appeal of environmentalists who claimed in a petition that Sakhalin Energy's environmental impact assessment, was inadequate. Sakhalin Energy denied the claims and stated them as vague and inaccurate. The environmental and social concerns came to a head at the end of November 2005 when the chief executive of WWF, Robert Napier, said that it would have a "negative impact on Sakhalin's people and environment". The WWF asserted that Sakhalin 2 threatens marine life as well as potentially damaging the local communities in the region. Sakhalin Energy responded to the WWF's assertion by saying that the project meets lenders' policies and that environmental and social issues have been met. In September 2006, Sakhalin Energy briefly suspended construction work on its pipelines. Oleg Mitvol, the deputy chief of the Russian Federal Service for Natural Resources, had announced in early August 2006 that, according to his data, Sakhalin Energy failed to take all actions required to eliminate the danger of the mud flow. This was supported by President Vladimir Putin. For more than 20 years of operation Sakhalin Energy exercises industrial environmental control of its assets to ensure the compliance with legislation on environmental protection, to observe established environmental regulations, and to provide the rational use of natural resources and fulfilment of the plans for minimising the environmental impact. The company exercises industrial environmental control in the following areas: – air emissions; – water use and discharge; – waste management. The company has developed and implements the Air Emissions and Energy Management Standard, Water Use Standard and Waste Management Standard. For more details see Sustainable Development Report

One key concern from environmental groups is that the Sakhalin 2 project will harm the western gray whale population. The whales summer feeding grounds are close to the project's offshore platforms in the Sea of Okhotsk. In 2006, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel (WGWAP). Its members are marine scientists who give independent advice to Sakhalin Energy about managing any potential risks to the western gray whales. The Russian Academy of Sciences has identified an increasing population of western gray whales in the Sea of Okhotsk during a photo identification research programme. However, in February 2009 the WGWAP issued an urgent warning that the number of western gray whales observed in the primary (near shore) feeding area had decreased and the panel called for a " moratorium on all industrial activities, both maritime and terrestrial, that have the potential to disturb gray whales in summer and autumn on and near their main feeding areas." In a meeting in April 2009, the WGWAP reiterated its urgent plea for a moratorium. Sakhalin Energy then agreed to suspend its planned summer 2009 seismic testing. The Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute is involved in regular monitoring of the western gray whales near the oil and gas developments on the Sakhalin Shelf. In December 2008, Sakhalin Energy won the Environmental Project of the Year award. The company's protection of the western gray whale population was recognised in the Environmental Efficiency of Economics category. The award was presented by Yuri Trutnev, the Russian Federation's Natural Resources Minister. The population assessment in 2008 resulted in an estimate of 130 individuals in the western population. No new reproductive females were recorded in 2010, resulting in a minimum of 26 reproductive females being observed since 1995. Sakhalin Energy in cooperation with Sakhalin 1 operator implementsthe integrated monitoring programme near the north eastern coast of Sakhalin Island. It shows that the distribution of whales in feeding areas did not vary significantly during the whole period of the study; the number of individuals in the aggregation is increasing, and its reproduction rate is stable. A study was conducted to research the composition, distribution and variability of the communities of gray whale food organisms.

Other concerns are that the project will threaten the livelihood of tens of thousands of fishermen, destroy the key salmon fishing area off the island by dumping one million tons of dredging spoil waste into the sea, and imply a long time threat of a large oil spill in the Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan. Dredging of Aniva Bay was completed in 2005. In 2005 the salmon harvest was recorded as an all time high of more than 134,000 tonnes. In 2007 this record was overturned with a salmon catch of 144,181 tonnes. Sakhalin Energy paid compensation of $110,000 to the Russian Federation to cover potential fish impacts from the Sakhalin 2 project. This compensation was paid regardless of whether any impact was recorded on the fishing industry or not. Part of these funds was used to set up thriving salmon hatcheries on Sakhalin Island. In 2007, the company started a programme to identify the taimen (a rare protected species of salmon) habitats in the river systems along the pipeline to ensure that production activity will not put the existence of this species at risk. At the first stage, the distribution and the number of young taimen in several rivers were studied. In 2011, a new phase was launched under the programme, based on the basin oriented approach to the study of ichthyofauna, including the Sakhalin taimen. In 2017, ichthyological studies were carried out in the Val River basin. In the course of the work, 29 stations were completed in the main channel, eight — in the tributaries of the river, and two — in the adjoining lakes. In total, 19 species of fish from nine families were identified in the Val River, watercourses and reservoirs in its basin. The family of salmonids was represented by the largest number of species: all four species of the Pacific salmon (genus Oncorhynchus) reproducing in the rivers of Sakhalin, three species of the Arctic salmon of the genus Salvelinus, and the Sakhalin taimen. The family of cyprinids was represented by four species; the remaining families were represented by one species each.