Russian Watchdog Backs Disputed Pacific Pipeline
Date: 07-Mar-06
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Oliver Bullough
The pipeline has backing from President Vladimir Putin and will allow the world's No. 2 oil exporter to diversify its massive shipments away from Europe's slow-growing markets.
Scientists, whose opposition to the plan was overruled, promised to appeal the Rostekhnadzor watchdog's decision, but pipeline monopoly Transneft said it should start building in May when the state finally signs off on the project.
The pipeline will cost $11 billion and will pump as much as 1.6 million barrels per day to China and the Pacific coast.
Rostekhnadzor's expert commission had previously rejected the plan, saying the pipeline ran too close to Baikal, which would be irreparably damaged if one of the region's frequent earthquakes ruptured the pipe.
Watchdog head Konstantin Pulikovsky, however, brought in new scientists and insisted the commission reconsider - leading to the approval that he signed off on.
"Yes, Pulikovsky has signed a positive assessment. He signed it on March 3," said Rostekhnadzor spokesman Alexander Afonin.
Lake Baikal is home to a freshwater seal and hundreds of other unique species. Earthquakes widen it by 2 cm (an inch) a year - roughly the same rate of expansion as the Atlantic Ocean - and it is called "a future ocean" by scientists.
NOT OVER YET
Opponents said their fight against the plan was not over, and accused Pulikovsky of forcing their colleagues to overturn their previous commission's rejection of the plan.
Gennady Chegasov, a commission member, said the pressure on members and the fiddling with the group's composition would have been unusual even in Soviet times.
"The unprecedented amount of boorishness and pressure would not be possible without the government's support," he said.
"We will appeal the result of the investigation in court ... I am prepared to appear as an expert and as a witness of the violations that took place," he told reporters.
But analysts say the political support behind the plan made it unstoppable, especially since Putin himself has urged speed.
"Hopefully we will get final approval by mid-May and then can launch full construction, announce tenders to chose constructors and begin final talks on financing with Western banks," Transneft Vice-President Sergei Grigoriyev told Reuters.
Environmental groups said they would organise protests in defence of the lake, which is the world's deepest and contains 20 percent of the earth's unfrozen fresh water.
"But we understand that in the Russian legal system it will be hard to fight a state company that has support from the presidential administration," said Roman Vazhenkov, head of Greenpeace's Baikal programme.
The lake's purity is an object of pride to Russians, and protests in 1987 over a factory polluting its hitherto pristine waters were one of the first signs of the social changes that were to lead to the collapse of totalitarian rule in Russia.
Greenpeace has appealed to Western banks to refuse to finance the project.
