NGOs warn banks and ECAs not to invest in Sakhalin II

(Guardian, London, 2 July 2007) Royal Bank of Scotland, ABN Amro and the government's export credit agency have been told by green campaigners not to consider funding or underwriting Shell's Sakhalin-2 gas project in Russia because of continuing environmental concerns. NGOs note that violations of bank lending policies are continuing and urge them to protect the integrity of their bank's commitment to social and environmental responsibility by declining financing of Sakhalin-2. They note that development of the $20bn energy scheme is still being undertaken in an irresponsible way, undermining Kremlin arguments that past problems should all be laid at the feet of Shell and would end when Russian state-owned Gazprom took a controlling stake in the project last December.