Environmental campaigners warned on Wednesday that noise from an offshore energy project in far eastern Russia led by state-controlled gas giant Gazprom was threatening endangered whales. "Ecological organisations have been warning for a long time of the critical danger of sound levels close to oil and gas extraction," the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said in a statement.
The environmental group said that Sakhalin Energy, the consortium developing the Sakhalin-2 project, "has remained deaf to the conclusions and warnings of environmentalists."
There are only about 100 western grey whales left and the species is regarded as critically endangered. The island of Sakhalin off eastern Russia is considered one of the last remaining summer habitats for the whales.
A spokesman for Sakhalin Energy rejected the accusation and said the company had presented monitoring data to environmentalists last week that showed noise levels were below the acceptable norm.
"From the very beginning of our operation we were very aware and very resolute not to have an impact on whales," Ivan Chernyakhovsky told AFP by telephone.
Russian authorities put pressure on the Sakhalin Energy consortium, which is developing vast oil and gas reserves, last year over alleged environmental breaches during construction.
The inquiries were widely seen by energy analysts as an attempt to force British-Dutch energy giant Shell, then the operator of the consortium, to sell to Gazprom on favourable conditions.
Gazprom bought a 50 percent plus one share stake in Sakhalin Energy in December, with Shell and Japanese trading houses Mitsui and Mitsubishi staying as minority partners.
Russian authorities scrapped environmental inquiries shortly after the deal.
Source: Agence France-Presse
