Ecologists Concerned about LUKoil Plans

At a meeting with EBRD President Jean Lemierre in Tashkent at the beginning of May ecologists expressed their concerns about LUKoil plans aimed at producing oil at the D6 field near the Curonian Spit National Park, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Ecodefense organization told RBC. Ecodefense submitted a new report to Lemierre about this project of the Russian oil giant. Ecologists pointed to the violations of the law on organizing public discussion of the project D6, restrictions imposed on citizens' access to information about ecological danger of the project and activities aimed at hindering the organization of a public ecological examination of the project.

The EBRD President noted that the raised questions were serious and assured ecologists that he shared their concerns. Lemierre said that EBRD representatives would discuss these questions with LUKoil management as soon as possible.

The oil deposit D6 (Kratsovskoye) is situated 22 kilometers away from the coast in the Kaliningrad region, close to the Lithuanian-Russian border on the Baltic Sea shelf. In May 2000 the EBRD allocated a $150m credit to LUKoil. In August 2000 LUKoil President Vaghit Alekperov announced the beginning of activities at the D6 field.

Ecodefense has urged the EBRD to stop financing the D6 project.

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