By Ed Crooksand Michael Peel
Published: August 16 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 16 2007 03:00
Environmental groups have applied for a judicial review of official support for Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin 2 oil-and-gas project off the far eastern coast of Russia, arguing that it in effect gave the backing of the UK government to serious environmental damage.
The focus of the criticism by the WWF and The Corner House is a conditional decision by the Export Credit Guarantee Department in March 2004 to offer roughly $1bn (£499m) in guarantees to the Sakhalin 2 project to cover work being done by two British sub-contractors.