If there's 45 billion barrels of oil off Sakhalin then you have to go and get it. We should be drilling off California and Florida and Georgia and S Carolina and etc. also. It's not an either or proposition.
This is not true. Oil has been produced at Shell's facility in Shakhalin for a couple of years.
Phase 2 is still under construction but phase 1 started flowing oil 1999.
SAKHALIN ENERGY INVESTMENT COMPANY LTD, PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND DISCLOSURE PLAN, August 2005
What do I think?
Return the Northern Territories NOW!
Sakhalin update. One of, if not the largest, oil development projects in the world is moving into full production. Offshore Sakhalin Island holds an estimated 20 billion bbl of oil and 137 Tcf (45 billion boe) of gas, making it a major oil and gas province.
Sakhalin Island is off Russia's eastern coastline, north of Hokkaido Island (Japan). The Pacific side was first leased in the early 1990s. Exxon Neftegas Ltd and Sakhalin Energy won Sakhalin-I and Sakhalin-II, respectively.
Sakhalin Energy is a consortium of Royal Dutch Shell (operator, 55%), Mitsui (25%) and Mitsubishi (20%) and was the first to produce oil. Using a modified Canadian arctic rig - the Molikpaq - the Piltun Astokhskoye discovery became the first Sakhalin field to produce oil. Shell expects to spend around $20 billion to fully develop it and the Lunskoye discovery. This figure also includes the construction of LNG trains and related facilities.
Production began from the Astokh portion of the field in July 1999 and the gravity-based, Molikpaq structure has produced more than 50 MM bbl of oil. Water injection maintains reservoir pressure. Lunskoye will be developed soon.
more at:
http://www.worldoil.com/magazine/MAGAZINE_DETAIL.asp?ART_ID=2921&MONTH_YEAR=Jun-2006