Indigenous peoples in the oil-producing areas of Russia

Göttingen
A handshake between the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the Russian President Vladimir Putin – this is the picture in the German daily press following the Russo-German economic conference in April 2005. Broad smiles on the faces of the two statesmen as a result of the successful conclusion of the negotiations between the German concerns Eon and Wintershall with the gas monopolist Gazprom and others. In future the energy companies will be more intensively involved in the provision of and the trade with Russian natural gas. Thus Russia will be playing an ever more important part in supplying the German energy market.

Russia is one of the largest oil and natural gas producers in the world. The political insecurity in the oil producing countries of the Near East makes Russian fuels a secure alternative. Yet while the oil and gas produced in Russia guarantee security and stable prices on the German energy market the extraction itself is leading to an ecological and humanitarian catastrophe. Most of the Russian oil and gas resources are in Siberia. The centre of extraction lies in the Western Siberian area of Tyumen. Living here are Chanten, Mansen, Nenzen and other indigenous peoples. Their original habitat is falling more and more into the hands of the oil and gas companies. The consequences of the exploitation of oil and gas are catastrophic for the country and the people. Black lakes are forming under the pipeline. Mineral oil is accumulating on the permafrost soil and forcing its way to the surface. The oil is flowing into the earth, getting into the rivers and is contaminating pasturelands. The land of the indigenous peoples of Siberia is sinking in mineral oil. This ecological disaster is being repeated day by day at the mineshafts and the very long Russian pipelines. The nomadic people living there have no chance of protecting themselves against it. The oil leaking out of the decrepit pipes is destroying their habitat, while the industrial countries at the other end of the pipeline are profiting from the exploitation of the natural products.

Now the international oil multis have begun to drill for oil even in the most remote regions. Off the peninsular of Sakhalin in the far northeast of Russia lie by far the most extensive reserves in the world. Under the aegis of the Royal Dutch/Shell concern the project Sakhalin-II is to be put into operation. A pipeline network is to be set up, which will cut through over 1.000 rivers and streams, threaten the last grey whales off the island and destroy the last contiguous pasture-lands. For the second time since January 2005 the indigenous people protested again at the end of June 2005. They are blocking the approach roads to the works and are demanding an independent environment report together with participation in all decisions. Please support these demands with an Email to the oil consortium "Sakhalin energy Investment Company”, which is responsible for the project.

Please write to:

Matthew Bateson

External Affairs Manager

35, Dzerzhinskogo Road

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

693020

Russia

Fax: 007 4242 66 20 12