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peoples of Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East: After four years of trying, the Sakhalin Energy company has withdrawn its loan applications from US, UK and European development banks, because it has not met the banks’ environmental requirements.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

Environmental groups are withholding judgment on the deal struck Thursday between Shell and Russia in which the government-controlled Gazprom apparently acquires a majority stake in the problem-plagued Sakhalin II oil and gas project.[1]

Russia has ordered a full environmental probe of Royal Dutch Shell's US billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas development in Russia's Far East

Shell has already spent upwards of US billion on Sakhalin-2, due to start up in 2008. Much of the initial production has found customers in the United States and Japan.

Until August, the company said it had worked in step with Russian regulators to fulfil all necessary regulations.

Celebrate this victory in a campaign we launched in January 2004!

Thanks to all who have written letters to the Russian government and to the Sakhalin II oil project's potential financial backers. With this week's decision, the Russian government has taken an important step to put some teeth into corporate accountability and to protect Sakhalin's fragile wild salmon habitat.

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Russia Revokes Permit for Sakhalin Energy Project

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's environmental regulator said Tuesday it had filed suit seeking to revoke approval for a billion international oil project led by Royal Dutch Shell on the Pacific island of Sakhalin.

The Federal Service for the Supervision of Natural Resources had signaled for several weeks that it planned to ask the Natural Resources Ministry to withdraw its approval for the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia's Far East.

Environmental groups today welcomed the decision by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources to sue to halt construction of the Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-II pipeline. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources announced on August 3, 2006 that it will sue Shell’s Sakhalin II oil and gas project due to poor engineering that has resulted in land slides that are environmentally harmful and a safety hazard. Several independent environmental organizations have confirmed these findings.

Fresh photographs taken by Sakhalin Environment Watch from June 21-July 3, 2006 show continued severe erosion problems on Shell’s problem-plagued Sakhalin II oil and gas project on Russia’s Sakhalin Island. A photo report with written description can be found at:

Three environmental organizations released pictures today of recent environmental damage caused during construction of pipelines associated with Royal Dutch Shell's enormously risky Sakhalin II oil and gas project, located on Sakhalin Island, in the Russian Far East.[1] The photographs document violations of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company’s river crossing strategy, international banking policies and Russian law, despite Shell’s public commitment to prevent environmental damage. These pictures are available at:

The Hague, Netherlands - In the weeks running up to the May 16, 2006, Shell Annual Shareholder?s meeting in the Hague, the oil giant has embarked on a broad PR campaign to try to minimize the impacts of its massive Sakhalin II oil and gas project on the critically endangered Western Gray Whale. ?The world is watching the Gray Whales of Sakhalin. Alexander Rutenko is also listening,? the ad says, referring to that scientist?s monitoring of underwater noise impacts on the whale.

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its partners in a billion Russian natural-gas venture are being confronted by environmentalists over the project's ecological consequences in a series of public hearings.

On March 15, the United Nations General Assembly voted 170–4 to create a new Human Rights Council, effectively dissolving the oft-criticized Commission on Human Rights. Candidates for the Council will need to be elected by an absolute majority of 96 votes in order to secure a position, and once elected members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.