21+ hour, 55+ min ago   (1604+ words) The previous instalment ended with an apparently contradictory picture. The whales feeding off north-eastern Sakhalin were increasing in number. By 2018 the IUCN would move the western subpopulation from Critically Endangered to Endangered. Yet recovery did not mean security. A small…...

3+ day, 18+ hour ago   (1581+ words) On 7 July 2015, Exxon Neftegas Limited finished seismic acquisition at Odoptu. On 8 July, Sakhalin Energy recorded the first shot point of its own Piltun-Astokh 4-D survey. On 29 July it recorded the last. That compressed timetable matters because almost everything that had…...

6+ day, 19+ hour ago   (1563+ words) By November 2012, the argument over Sakhalin Energy’s proposed third offshore platform had changed. For almost two years the question had been largely theoretical. Would another platform be necessary? Could South Piltun hydrocarbons be recovered from PA-A or PA-B instead? Could…...

1+ week, 21+ hour ago   (1593+ words) Before a third platform could be built, Sakhalin Energy had to determine exactly where it might stand. That required another seismic operation. The South Piltun high-resolution 2-D site survey was originally planned for summer 2011. It did not happen on schedule....

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (1605+ words) The timing could hardly have been more revealing. At its December 2010 meeting, the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel was still trying to understand what had happened during an extraordinary year on the northeastern Sakhalin shelf. Three seismic surveys had operated…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (1606+ words) The previous Shell Leaks File examined a rare example of an environmental protection system directly constraining an industrial operation. Sakhalin Energy’s Astokh 4-D seismic survey was conducted under an unusually elaborate monitoring programme. The scientists helped design it. Marine Mammal…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (1582+ words) The previous Shell Leaks File followed Sakhalin II’s financing east. Britain’s Export Credits Guarantee Department had spent years considering approximately $650 million of support. A separate judicial review was approaching hearing. Then Sakhalin Energy withdrew its British application on 29 February 2008. The…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (1602+ words) For years, Sakhalin II had been discussed as though international public finance might determine whether the project could proceed. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development examined a proposed Phase 2 financing package. The US Export-Import Bank was also involved in…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago   (1581+ words) The previous Shell Leaks File examined a deceptively simple document. On 4 March 2004, Britain’s Export Credits Guarantee Department sent Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd a letter headed: The letter did not constitute the final approximately $650 million ECGD guarantee being contemplated for…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (1580+ words) In May 2007, the anonymous Sakhalin II source made an allegation more precise than a general complaint about bad workmanship. The source claimed that Sakhalin Energy had “consistently ignored reports produced by their Quality Control Department over a four-year period” and…...