Britain Unsure on Sakhalin

(Moscow Times, London, 4 February 2008) Britain has yet to reach a decision on a $1 billion loan for the Sakhalin-2 oil and natural gas development after four years of deliberating, an official said Friday. Britain's Export Credit Guarantee Department has not decided whether the project meets its environmental criteria, ECGD communications director Steve Robert-Mee said. Indigenous people, rare salmon and gray whales have suffered from the work on Sakhalin island, according to James Leaton, WWF UK's Oil and Gas Policy advisor.