Pacific Pipeline Terminal will not be built at Perevoznaya

This breaking news was published on Monday 6 February by 'Rostekhnadzor', the Russian agency responsible for the supervision of the oil pipeline project. A 14-member expert committee studied the terminal issue and a sufficient majority of 11 members concluded that it was unacceptable to build the terminal at 'Perevoznaya' on the Amur Bay near Vladivostok. The supervising agency has signed the committee's conclusion and this makes the decision official. The vice president of Transneft, Sergei Grigorev, has stated that his pipeline company will now start looking for another site. This decision gives new hope for the critically endangered Amur leopard and the unique forest and marine ecosystems of Southwest Primorye.

Unfortunately, the threat to Lake Baikal is not over yet. Rostekhnadzor has not endorsed the results of another federal expert committee that reviewed the pipeline project. This committee concluded that the pipeline route passing the lake at no more than 800 meter was unacceptable. In an attempt to change the results, Rostekhnadzor added new members (allegedly as many as 34) to the 52-member committee and extended its working period by 30 days…