The pipeline's construction would involve use of heavy-duty ships whose noise could seriously disturb the whales, the Sakhalin Energy's press service said.

The summer feeding grounds of gray whales, whose entire population numbers some 100 animals, are mostly nestled in the oil-rich Piltun-Astokh fields.

The consortium will undertake additional tests this summer in a bid to lower the construction's noise level, the press service said, adding however that all pipelines must be completed by 2007.

Ecologists repeatedly charge that Sakhalin-II's two new extraction platforms and an 800-kilometer pipeline, which would transport oil and gas from the island's north to its south, are a danger to the island's ecosystem and inhabitants.

Royal Dutch/Shell has a 55-percent majority holding in Sakhalin Energy, with Japanese companies Mitsui Sakhalin (25 percent) and Mitsubishi's Diamond Gas Sakhalin (20 percent) holding the remaining shares.

Deposits involved in the Sakhalin-2 project are estimated at 140 million tonnes of oil and 400 billion cubic metres of gas respectively.

Sakhalin island is Russia's richest fishing area and its catch is the local populace's chief source of profit.

TERRA.WIRE