The international consortium developing the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in eastern Russia should prepare for a range of economic penalties over feared environmental damage, Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev warned on Wednesday. "The economic sanctions which will be imposed without fail will not be just fines but a package of economic measures," the minister said according to news agency ITAR-TASS.
"The Sakhalin-2 affair will not be finished with a few administrative fines of 10 or 100 million rubles," he said.
Oleg Mitvol, the number two at environmental supervisory body Rosprirodnadzor, part of the Russian environment ministry, told news agency Ria Novosti on Wednesday that a final report on the Sakhalin-2 project would be ready in mid-December.
The 20-billion-dollar (16-billion-euro) project has already started pumping oil and is due to make its first deliveries of liquefied natural gas to Asia in 2008.
But Russian authorities fear environmental damage and Trutnev has accused the consortium running the project of destroying forest and causing damage to water resources and soil.
Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch Shell owns a 55 percent stake in Sakhalin Energy, the consortium running the Sakhalin-2 project, with Japanese firms Mitsui and Co and Mitsubishi Corp holding 25 percent and 20 percent respectively.
Sakhalin is an island of Russia's eastern coast, located just 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Japan.
