By Billy Youngson
Filed from Aberdeen 3/4/2008 10:17:02 AM GMT
RUSSIA: Sakhalin Energy shelved its bid to grab hundreds of millions of dollars of public financing for the world’s largest integrated oil and gas development. Delays in getting approval have led the Gazprom- and Shell-led venture to withdraw applications with the U.S. Export Import (Ex-Im) Bank and the UK Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD).
The U.S. and British lenders have been studying whether the US$22 billion project meets their funding criteria, with environmental groups such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) highly critical. Sakhalin II, located off Russia’s eastern coast, has been plagued by environmental problems, including threats to the endangered Western Gray Whales, damage to wild salmon spawning grounds, and negative impacts to indigenous and fishing cultures.
Ivan Chernyakhovsky, a spokesman for Sakhalin Energy, said it was important for finance to be in place before the end of construction, with major work targeted for completion before the end of the year. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation and commercial banks are expected to finalise project funding in the first half of this year. Sakhalin Energy, the shareholders of which include Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi, plan to raise at least US$5 billion to fund the development. read more
Like this:
Like Loading...
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website, and
shellnews.net,
are owned by
John Donovan. There is also a
Wikipedia segment.