Tokyo-Environmental organizations today condemned the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and four private banks' June 16 decision to provide approximately 5.3 billion dollars in financing for the problematic Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the Russian Far East.[1] JBIC (the Japan government's official export credit agency), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Japan), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd (Japan), Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Corp (Japan) and BNP Paribas (France) have severely violated their environmental policies by financing Sakhalin II, according to the groups.

RUSSIA- Celebrate this victory with environmentalists and indigenous peoples of Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East: After four years of trying, the Sakhalin Energy company has withdrawn its loan applications from US, UK and European development banks, because it has not met the banks’ environmental requirements.

MOSCOW - Russia plans to start new checks on the Exxon Mobil-led Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project at the end of March, an environmental watchdog official said on Thursday.

Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Russian environmental agency RosPrirodNadzor, said the examination of the scheme on the Pacific island of Sakhalin would focus on how Exxon and its partners fulfil their environmental obligations.