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February 2005
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"What's New!" is
a periodic update to keep you informed of the latest on the ECA
Watch website. What's New! features a wide range of materials related
to the reform of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) including NGO publications
and releases, news articles, commentaries and announcements about
the policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-financed projects world-wide.
If you would like to receive "What's New!" simply add
your e-mail to the ECA-Action list at www.eca-watch.org today! Questions?
Email info@eca-watch.org
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1) Sakhalin II Update:
A. Whales Might Not Survive Sakhalin Oil Operations, Panel Finds
B. Sakhalin Indigenous People Blockade Sakhalin I and II
C. Sakahlin II Gas 70 Percent Sold Out
D. Shell's Sakhalin Energy Audited for Back Taxes; USD $2.5B Damages to Russia Alleged
E. Sakhalin II Project Update Available: News with links to articles dated September 2004 - January 2005
2) Greenpeace Belgium, Allies, Hold ECA Ducroire/ Delcredere Accountable
3) Critic of ECA-Backed BTC Pipeline Detained
4) China Pressures Three Gorges Project to Heed Rules
5) OPIC Approves $54M for Silver Mine in Bolivia
6) OPIC To Provide $300M for Natural Gas Development in Egypt
7) Asian Pulp and Paper Faces Charges on ECA-Backed Projects
8) Bahrain Petroleum Receives USD $311M from Japanese ECAs
9) FERN Pressures European ECAs to Release Environmental Info
10) Disputes at Every Turn of Siberia's Pipeline
11) Green Groups Hope Suit Forces US Hand on Warming
12) Former EU Trade Commissioner Supports ECA Campaign on Safeguards for Large Dams
13) OECD Publishes Report on Export Credits and the Environment
—View Back Issues
of What's New
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1.
Sakhalin II Update. The Sakhalin II project is seeking up to USD 5B from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) of the US, UK and Japan.
A. Whales May Not Survive Sakhalin Oil Operations, Panel Finds February 17, 2005 (Environment News Service) — An independent study by IUCN-- The World Conservation Union-- has concluded that noise, ship collisions, oil and gas spills, and habitat destruction
from the Sakhalin II project threaten the remaining western gray whale population -- 100 whales-- with extinction. Read the World Conservation Union (IUCN) "Whale Panel" Report (PDF download from the IUCN website).
B. Sakhalin Indigenous People Blockade Sakhalin I and IIJanuary 21, 2005 (RIA Novosti, Russia) — On January 21 representatives of local minority ethnic groups, as well as political activists, picketed the incomplete oil and gas facilities of Sakhalin I and Sakhalin II. From January 20-24, 2005, over 200 members of Sakhalin Island’s Nivkh, Uilta, Nanai and Evenk peoples endured minus 30 degree Celsius temperature to blockade the Sakhalin I and II projects. They protested against these projects’ impacts on their native fisheries, reindeer pastures and overall livelihoods, demanding an independent cultural impact assessment and a development fund for Sakhalin’s indigenous people. Read a news feed on the protestors' progress over the course of the action and afterwards.
C. Sakhalin II Gas 70 Percent Sold Out
February 16, 2005 ( Reuters) — Royal Dutch/Shell
claims to have
sold about 70 percent of the capacity of Russia's USD $10B Sakhalin II liquefied natural gas project and is in advanced talks with up to two Asian buyers for more supply deals.
D. Shell's Sakhalin Energy Audited for Back Taxes; USD $2.5B Damages to Russia Alleged
February 12, 2005 (International Herald Tribune/ New York Times) — Cost overruns at the natural gas project led by Shell on Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East are coming under closer scrutiny after an examination by Moscow's main independent budget auditor.
E. Sakhalin II Project Update Available: News with links to articles dated September 2004 - January 2005 (PDF download). February 15, 2005 (Source: CEE Bankwatch and Pacific Environment) — Includes photos and links on the January indigenous action, the Kholmsk oil spill cleanup, and other developments.
2. Greenpeace Belgium, Allies, Hold ECA Ducroire/ Delcredere Accountable
January 25, 2005 (Source: Greenpeace Belgium) — Belgian ECA Ducroire/Delcredere has come under criticism by Greenpeace Belgium for funding dirty energy projects in the Global South. Read its report 'Exporting pollution: the double standards of Belgian climate policies' in French (PDF). On February 15th, the eve of the Kyoto
Protocol entering into force, Greenpeace approached the Ducroire/Delcredere Board to present its report. Banners demanding support for renewable energy were
hung on the ECA's building, mock windmills were built on the sidewalk, and 5 tons
of coal were dumped by the front door.
3. Critic of ECA-Backed BTC Pipeline Detained
February 17, 2005 (KurdishMedia) — Kerim Yildiz, the Executive Director of Kurdish Human Rights Project, was safely returned to the UK following a 13-hour unlawful detention by Azerbaijani officials on February 9, 2005. It is believed by ECA Watch supporters that Yildiz was due to meet with potential applicants to the European Court of Human Rights over cases arising from the BTC project.
4. China Pressures Three Gorges Project to Heed Rules
February 1, 2005 (Reuters, via Alertnet) — China's environmental watchdog the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), is flexing its limited muscles to try to clean up industry, and may take the operators of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, to court.
The Three Gorges Dam was made possible with financing from the Export Credit Agencies of Germany, Switzerland and Canada.
5. OPIC Approves $54 Million for Silver Mine in Bolivia
January 21, 2005 (US Department of State) — The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will provide USD $54M in political risk insurance for the construction and operation of the San Bartolome silver mine in the Bolivian mining city of Potosí.
6.
OPIC To Provide $300M For Natural Gas Development in Egypt
January 20, 2005 (Insurance Journal) — The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) announced a commitment to provide USD $300M in political risk insurance to Apache Corporation for a project designed to help Egypt shift the emphasis of its energy production from oil to more environmentally friendly natural gas.
7. Asian Pulp and Paper Faces Charges on ECA-Backed Projects
February 2, 2005 (Morningstar.com) — Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper faces fresh allegations of illegal logging in China and Cambodia that could tarnish the firm's efforts to rebrand as more environmentally-friendly, amid ongoing talks to restructure its USD $13.9B debt. The latest developments come as APP enters nearly a fourth year of fitful debt-restructuring negotiations. The company stopped debt repayments in March 2001, and its operations have suffered during the talks with creditors, which include export credit agencies from the US and Europe, Japan's Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, and numerous private banks.
8.
Bahrain Petroleum Receives USD $311M from Japanese ECAs
February 8, 2005 (Middle East North Africa Financial Network) — The government-owned Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) yesterday signed a USD $1.011B financing package with a number of banks for the upgrading of the country's sole oil refinery. The package included a $370M commercial facility, a $330M Islamic lease facility and a $311M tranche guaranteed by Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export Credit Agency.
9. FERN Pressures European ECAs to Release Environmental Info
February 11, 2005 (Source: FERN, ECA Watch) — February 14 was the deadline for a new ground-breaking EU Directive stating that member states must transpose new rules on public access to environmental information into national legislation. It will
place binding obligations on European export credit agencies to disclose information about the environmental impacts of their financing. Read the FERN press release (PDF).
10. Disputes at Every Turn of Siberia's Pipeline
January 21, 2005 (New York Times) — Controversy surrounds Russia's biggest infrastructure project: the
2,565 mile-long trans-Siberian pipeline.
The project's hurdles include the doubt that there
will be enough oil to fill the pipe.
The project seeks USD billions in financing from the ECA of Japan-- Japanese Bank for International Cooperation. Read a related item from the January 2005 What's New Update: Russia Approves Pacific Oil Pipeline (Agence France Presse).
11. Green Groups Hope Suit Forces US Hand on Warming
January 17, 2005 (Planet Ark) — Green lobbyists and several US cities hope a lawsuit against US development agencies will force the government to act on global warming, even though President Bush has long insisted there's no scientific proof linking human activity to warming.
In 2002 Friends of the Earth US and the City of Boulder, Colorado sued the US Export-Import Bank and Overseas Private Investment Corporation for violating the US National Environmental Policy Act due to climate change impacts from their financing of fossil fuel projects.
12. Former EU Trade Commissioner Supports ECA Campaign on Safeguards for Large Dams
November 2004 (reported by FERN February 2005)— Pascal Lamy,
EU Commissioner for Trade from 1999 to 2004, backed the European ECA Reform Campaign on their concerns about ECA funding for large dams when he was still Trade Commissioner. ECA Watch members had raised concerns with his office,
Directorate General Trade of the European Commission (DG Trade), about an EU proposal tabled at the OECD that would allow ECAs better financing terms for large hydro power plants without requiring them to comply with meaningful social and environmental safeguards. Read Incoherent Policy on Hydro Power (FERN Forest Watch Bulletin, October 2004). In recent years, it has been widely acknowledged that large dams worldwide have failed to provide the benefits their promoters had predicted, while their negative social and environmental impacts have been far greater than imagined. The European ECA Reform Campaign has been calling on the European Commission to ensure strong safeguards for dams benefiting from ECA funding in order to mitigate negative impacts. The effort was rewarded: FERN received a reply in November 2004 from then-Commissioner Lamy in which he clarified that he expects European ECAs financing large dams to comply with specific safeguards, including the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams (WCD). This statement is a crucial success for the campaign, as it further cements the European Commission’s commitment to the WCD and acknowledges the critical role ECAs play in financing large dams.
Learn more about the World Commission on Dams.
13. OECD Publishes Report on Export Credits and the Environment
January 21, 2005 (Source: OECD) — Click to download Export Credits and the Environment: OECD Policy Brief (PDF, 213 kb)
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