NEWS
Shell says Sakhalin 2 still on track for 2008
London, Aug 3 (LNG journal)
- Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday that deliveries from Sakhalin 2, the world's biggest liquefied natural gas project, remain on schedule for 2008, even as Japanese press reports said further delays were likely on environmental grounds.
"The fact that the delivery schedule for LNG has slipped by a year has already been announced," a Shell spokeswoman said in London . "We've already said that pipelines would be partially re-routed for environmental reasons. "The delay in deliveries of LNG was made clear along with the cost increase and will be in 2008 instead of 2007."
Shell, the world's third-largest oil and gas major by market value, was reacting to a report in the Japanese financial daily, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, that fresh delays were likely on LNG because a pipeline was being re-routed to avoid a whale feeding area and would affect year-round oil and hydrocarbon operations.
Shell announced in mid-July that the second phase of the Sakhalin-2 project, which would boost oil output and start production of LNG, would cost twice as much as the original projected costs of $10 billion and that LNG deliveries would be slightly delayed.
In a statement issued on March 30, 2005, Shell said it would reroute offshore pipelines in its oil and gas development in the Sakhalin 2 development to help protect the endangered western gray whale.
The pipelines, linking two production platforms in the Piltun-Astokhskoye field off Sakhalin Island to the shore, would be moved 20 kilometres south of the original location, away from the key whale feeding area and that Russian government agencies would be asked to approve the change, Shell said at the time.
