Sakhalin Prepares for Quake

Sakhalin Energy, the company responsible for hydrocarbon extraction and infrastructure placement on the island, says the LNG plant now under construction on Sakhalin has been designed to withstand the most powerful earthquakes, which might occur once in 10,000 years. Should an earthquake of this kind occur while the plant is in operation, it will shut down in a safe mode. Other coastal structures now springing up on Sakhalin in the framework of expanding oil and gas extraction have been designed to withstand strong tremors which occur every 500 to 1,000 years, according to the company.

Sakhalin is still reeling from a devastating quake which flattened the town of Neftegorsk in 1995, killing more than 2,000 people and doing extensive damage to the environment. All facilities Sakhalin Energy has sited on Sakhalin are being designed and built taking full account of that tragedy. The 800-km pipeline which will carry oil and gas from the north of the island to the area of Korsakov (in the south of the island) will be crossing over two dozen fault lines. At such points, the pipeline will be reinforced with polystyrene insulation, thicker pipe walls and pipe placement in trenches up to a metre deep.