Financial Times: Shell reschedules work to help whales

By Clay Harris
Published: May 3 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: May 3 2004 5:00

Sakhalin Energy Investment, a joint venture led by Royal Dutch/Shell, has rescheduled pipeline construction work off the Pacific coast of Russia to minimise disturbance to the critically endangered western grey whale. It said the change would not affect its overall production schedule, with the first deliveries of liquefied natural gas due to reach customers in 2007.

The change reflects the discovery that pipelines in the Piltun-Astokhskoye field, where the sea freezes in winter, will have to be buried deeper under the seabed. This will require larger and louder dredging vessels.

This summer, Sakhalin Energy will study how the work can be achieved with minimum disturbance to the migrating whales. In the meantime, it will proceed with offshore pipelines further south - work that had been planned for later in the project.