Greenpeace Protests Russia's Plan for World's Longest Oil Pipeline

MOSCOW, Russia, February 2, 2006 (ENS) - About 60 Greenpeace activists protested at the headquarters of a Russian government agency Wednesday, accusing it of trying to silence its own environmental experts who are opposed to plans for the world's longest oil pipeline, scheduled to be built through a World Heritage Site around Lake Baikal.

In bitter cold weather, the Greenpeacers demonstrated in front of the federal technical watchdog Rostekhnadzor against the construction of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline on the shore of Lake Baikal in an action allowed by Russian authorities.

Greenpeace protesters carry a sign in front of the Rostekhnadzor building in Moscow on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace Russia)

The environmentalists submitted a special appeal to Rostekhnadzor representatives. No violations or police actions were reported.

The pipeline, developed and promoted by the Russian state-owned oil transportion monopoly Transneft, is planned to become the largest pipeline project in the world.

With its total length of 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles), the pipeline is three times as long as the Alyeska pipeline in the United States. Plans call for an annual capacity of 80 million tons of oil and a total construction cost of up to US$18 billion.

Greenpeace says over 80 percent of the experts who were commissioned to assess the environmental impact of building the pipeline, rejected the proposal because of its proximity to one of the world's most fragile ecosystems, the group said. Lake Baikal, in the Irkutsk region, has been a World Heritage Site since 1996.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the proposed pipeline was commissioned by Russia's Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Atomic Supervision, or Rostekhnadzor, in November 2005. The agency convened a panel of 52 top Russian scientists, who delivered their assessment on January 24.

Forty-three of the scientists signed a statement concluding that the pipeline would have a negative impact, saying that it would be built just 800 meters away from Lake Baikal, and poses "a great potential danger to the lake."

Their statement says that the design documents submitted by Transneft do not fully meet Russian or international law.

Greenpeace protest in Moscow Wednesday (Photo courtesy Greenpeace Russia)

Following these conclusions, Greenpeace said the agency was expected to issue a special decree endorsing the results of the assessment, and blocking construction of the pipeline.

But the agency has failed to publish the decree and a number of the scientists on the panel have now complained that they have been pressured into changing their minds and approving an immediate start to construction.

"We are receiving phone calls asking to think twice before going public with the outcome of our work. In the meantime, the Federal Service is using loopholes in the Russian legislation to block the negative conclusions," said one of the experts, who declined to be named.

Experts claim that the agency is now recruiting more scientists in a bid to change the conclusions of the panel. Speaking at a Greenpeace press conference, one expert said, "Issuing a decree approving the EIA is just a bureaucratic formality, and the law does not bind the Federal Service to sign it. However, it says the Federal Service can hire additional experts to reach a decision, this time in favour of Transneft, while blocking the negative conclusion."

Transneft said earlier it is prepared to go to court to prove that the design of the construction of the pipeline's first phase meets environmental standards if the government environmental expert analysis service came to a negative conclusion.

Sunset over Lake Baikal (Photo by V. Potansky courtesy Greenpeace Russia)

The East Siberia - Pacific Coast pipeline project does not envision any oil spillages as "this is a hi-tech project and accidents there are just impossible," Grigoryev told the Russian news agency.

Roman Vazhenkov, Lake Baikal Campaign Coordinator of Greenpeace said, "We want to show our support to all experts who are not giving in to the pressure and urge the Federal Service to approve the negative conclusions of the state EIA signed already by the overwhelming majority of the experts. At stake is Lake Baikal and the future of Russia as a civilized country."

Under existing legislation, the deadline for the agency to issue the decree is tomorrow, but sources within the Federal Service say that the approval process may not be completed until April.