Sakhalin island is a remote and sparsely populated are in the farthest east section of Russia. It sits to the north of Japan’s most northern island of Hokkaido.

It’s ports freeze over part of each year because, well it is so dang cold.

But…Sakhalin is where the future may lie…at least for Russia’s big oil.

The island is about 600 miles long = about the length of California but about one/fourth the size and there is an estimated 45 billion barrels of oil equivalent that lie beneath its seas.  California probably has that much, too…but the fishhuggers are winning so far and it can’t be gotten to.

45 billion is roughly how much oil that remains in Europe or the US….so, it’s a lot.

Still, it is not easy to get to - the location, the conditions and the fact that no one wants to live in such an obscene place.

Well, nobody wants to be there except …one of the big boys – Shell.

Shell has partnered with Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. to the tune of a 55% stake. Marathon Oil couldn’t finish this marathon and DNFed (did not finish).

Shell’s other partners are Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. from Japan.

Shell has already spent 10s of bilions of dollars and the oil is yet to flow.

Has Shell bit off more than it can chew with this one? Maybe they should let the global warmers lose to the point where the area becomes defrosted for a spell.

What do you think?

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