In May 2004, 39 civil society groups, from 15 countries, warned commercial banks of extensive violations of the Equator Principles by the Shell-led Sakhalin II project. This update from 2005 finds that events over the past ten months show a deteriorating situation, constituting further violations.
Shell’s Sakhalin II integrated oil and gas project fails to comply with the Equator Principles on responsible lending. The project on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East will have severe environmental impacts, including threatening the critically endangered Western Gray Whale with extinction, damaging habitats of endangered bird and fish species, and polluting important fisheries.
In order for an oil company to produce oil and transport it to the global market, it needs either the support or the silence of the population in those areas of the world where this takes place. Where the necessary support – or ‘social licence to operate’ – is not forthcoming, the ability of that…