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Каспинфо октябрь 2000 |
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Название: Материалы на английском Главные Пункты: * Меморандум "Взаимоотношения НПО и ТНК в Каспийском регионе: проблемы и пути их решения", принятый на семинаре ИСАР 10-12 сентября 2000 г. в Алмате. Список участников семинара. * Волга - наилучший маршрут для транспортировки нефти Азербайджана и Казахстана на Западные рынки. * Президент Туркменистана не отвергает ни один из возможных маршрутов транспортировки своего газа. * Сроки вылова осетра на Каспии могут быть продлены. * Материалы анализа тканей погибших на Каспии тюленей; возможно причиной смерти животных стал вирус собачьей чумки. Проведение исследований отчасти финасировалось мировым Банком и компанией ОКИОК. (12.10.2000) Полный Текст Материалы на английском МАТЕРИАЛЫ НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ***** Memorandum "Interaction between NGOs and TNCs in the Caspian Region: Identifying and Resolving Areas of Concern" Representatives from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of the countries of the Caspian region (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) gathered in Almaty, Kazakhstan September 10-12, 2000 to attend the seminar "Developing Principles for Interaction between Nongovernmental Organizations and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the Caspian Region." NGO representatives from other parts of the world (Russian Far East, Kyrgyzstan, US) with experience interacting with TNCs shared their experience during the seminar. The increasing influence of TNCs in the Caspian region has caused genuine concern among environmental NGOs. The Caspian is a unique, self-contained natural environment and its renewable biological resources, clean water and clean atmosphere are invaluable and vulnerable. The lives and the well-being of an enormous number of people living on the shores of the Caspian depend directly on the quality of the surrounding habitat. The current large-scale discovery of natural resources in the Caspian is resulting in a powerful wave of interference in the natural environment of the region, bringing with it unpredictable catastrophic consequences. TNC extraction of natural resources in the Caspian Basin is significant. Their penetrating influence manifests itself in all facets of society, including the unlimited consumption of natural resources, lowering environmental and other risk factors, and a tendency to weaken environmental protection standards. The participants of this seminar recognize the need for dialogue and information exchange with the TNCs, as well as the need to increase the population's knowledge of TNC activities and their environmental consequences. The seminar participants identified the following key problems related to their interaction with TNCs: inadequate access to information, unclear legal issues and a lack of adequate participation in decision-making on TNC activities in the region. Participants discussed the past experience of NGO and TNC interaction in the Caspian region and in other parts of the world and agreed on the need to develop common principles for joint actions in interacting with TNCs as well as the possibility for cooperation with other NGOs. The seminar participants came to a decision on the need for solidarity in their interactions with TNCs. This solidarity might exist in the form of creating a coalition, signing an agreement, creating a voluntary code of conduct for TNCs in the Caspian region, and creating a database and Internet-forum for issues of mutual interest. ***** The Wall Street Journal Europe September 8-9, 2000 They're Singing About The Volga Again By Vladimir Socor Mr. Socor is a senior analyst with the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, publishers of The Monitor: A Daily Briefing on the Post -Soviet States. Using a few eager Western financiers in Moscow as its amplifiers, the Russian government is humming the old "Volga Boatmen's Song" to Caspian countries and to Western oil companies, banks and governments. According to the eager middlemen in Moscow, the Volga river offers a most convenient export route through Russia for the planned big oil flows out of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. They say those countries and the Western producing companies could do no better than to send the oil from the Caspian Sea directly up the Volga by barge or river tanker. The crude would be processed by Russian refineries at Volgograd and Samara, situated on the middle course of the Volga, the total processing capacity of which is officially put at 850,000 barrels per day. Caspian oil in excess of that amount, we're told, should move up river and on to the St. Petersburg region, toward which the Russians would lay an export pipeline complete with a large-capacity terminal on Russia's Baltic coast ("Northern Pipeline System," or NPS) for export to western and northern Europe. One key element in the scheme -- as summed up by its proponents -- is the "swap method." It implies in this case that Russia, using her transport systems, would import Caspian oil at the lower end of the Volga, export equivalent amounts from the upper end on behalf of Caspian suppliers, and hand them their share of the proceeds. The economic and political advantages accruing to Moscow from this scheme are clear: transit revenue; profits from the refining of crude; and prolonging the life of those obsolescent refineries -- the real processing capacity of which is probably below the officially stated one. Above all, Russia would maintain control of the oil flows out of the Caspian basin. The advantages to Caspian producers, however, are nowhere to be seen. One obvious disadvantage to all concerned is the comparatively high cost of exporting oil by barge and river tanker. Much practiced in Soviet days, and suited in some ways to Russia's internal geography, that form of oil transport left behind a large, now partly idled and decrepit fleet of specialized river vessels. One way to make work for that Russian fleet is turning the Volga into an export route. But it would be unprofitable to oil exporters because it would involve small volumes per transport unit. The plan, moreover, presupposes massive investments for building a Northern Pipeline system in the direction of the Russian end of the Baltic Sea. Such investments are beyond Russia's possibilities. The Volga scheme seems intended, among other things, as a means to attract Western financial support for the NPS project. It is a very hard sell. The Volga route is being suggested also as a possible alternative to the planned Baku (Azerbaijan)-Ceyhan (Turkey) main export pipeline for Caspian oil. Opponents try to discredit that American-backed project as merely "political," rather than economic -- as if providing Caspian countries with a lifeline to the West were not crucial to their economic wellbeing and to global energy security. Proponents of Russian or Iranian export routes maintain -- as do those who suggest the Volga -- that their proposals represent sound economics freed of politics. However, the political implications are impossible to miss. Routing the oil flow through Russia would only perpetuate the economic and political dependence of Caspian countries on the former metropolis, reverse their incipient economic modernization, jeopardize their fragile independence, and isolate them from the West. It would, in sum, throw those countries back into Moscow's orbit. An Iranian route for Caspian oil exports would also entail serious risks to the Caspian countries, if only because Iran is their competitor. Tehran remains the chief proponent of oil swap deals with these countries. It offers to buy their oil, refine it in northern Iran, and export Iranian oil of equivalent value from the Persian Gulf on behalf of the Caspian producers, turning the earnings over to them. However, Tehran's swap offers are hardly getting anywhere. This is not so much because of Washington's opposition; it has much more to do with economics and geography. The amounts of Caspian crude to be sold to, and swapped with, Iran would be limited to the processing capacity of northern Iranian refineries and the oil product requirements of that part of Iran. For the Caspian countries, therefore, oil swaps with Iran are no alternative to Baku-Ceyhan. Such swaps can only delay somewhat the start of Baku-Ceyhan by reducing the volumes of crude oil available to be committed to that pipeline. The legal status of the Caspian sea is also being invoked as part of attempts to delay Baku-Ceyhan. Although the division of that sea into national sovereign sectors is becoming an accomplished fact, Moscow insists on a different approach. It would restrict the applicability of sectoral division to the seabed only, leaving the water body and water surface to the "common use" of the five littoral countries. A dual regime of that kind would, however, leave room for mischief, instead of creating a safe legal environment for Western investment. Russia's most recent proposals seek a grand Caspian pact, to be signed by the five littoral countries. That pact would legally regulate mineral development, shipping, fishing, ecological protection, and security measures all "in one package." And it would create a Caspian"Strategic Development Center," to which the five countries would delegate regulatory powers on all those issues. Such a format would leave Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan face-to-face with the far more powerful Russia and Iran. The entire set of proposals seems designed to exclude any meaningful role for Western countries -- the very countries which, after all, provide the capital and technology for the offshore projects. Western success in tapping the Caspian oil and gas resources contrasts with Moscow's record of failure in that respect. The three newly independent countries on the Caspian Sea possess sufficient judgment and political will to stand up for their vital interests. (Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) ***** RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ___________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 187, Part I, 27 September 2000 TURKMEN PRESIDENT OUTLINES GAS PRIORITIES. In an interview published in "Vremya novostei" on 26 September, Saparmurat Niyazov said that Ashgabat has not rejected outright any of the proposed gas export pipelines currently under discussion, including the Trans-Caspian pipeline. But he added that proceeding from "national interests," the Turkmen leadership will implement only those pipeline projects that benefit Turkmenistan, noting that financial guarantees are required before a final agreement can be signed on the Trans-Caspian project. Niyazov said that Ashgabat has agreed to a Russian request to increase gas exports this year from 20 billion cubic meters to 30 billion cubic meters but that Russia has not yet agreed to Turkmenistan's proposed price hike from $36 to $38 per 1,000 cubic meters. He hinted that Turkmenistan will renege on the preliminary agreement negotiated two months ago by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Timoshenko, whereby Ukraine will pay $36 per 1,000 cubic meters of Turkmen gas, of which only 40 percent will be paid in cash (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 July 2000). Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma was to have traveled to Ashgabat this month to finalize that agreement. LF ***** The Russian Environmental Digest -- the world's major English-language press on environmental issues in Russia 18 - 24 September 2000, Vol. 2, No. 38 Sturgeon Season in Caspian To Be Extended British Broadcasting Corporation, September 22, 2000 Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax Moscow, 13th September: This year, Russia has caught a little over 400 tonnes of sturgeon in the North Caspian, which is 60 per cent less than last year. The production of caviar is expected to drop to 40 t. For this reason the sturgeon fishing season in the Caspian may be prolonged, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Fisheries Vladimir Izmaylov told Interfax on Wednesday [13th September]. He said that this year, given the fishing quotas of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, Russian fishermen could catch up to 800 tonnes of beluga, sturgeon and starred sturgeon in the Volga delta. The 1999 quota exceeded 1,000 t. The Fisheries Committee says the beluga and starred sturgeon quotas remain largely unused, because the fish were reluctant to spawn. Meanwhile, a study of autumn spawning in the Volga delta indicates that the quantities of fish are "quite impressive". Hence, "the committee, together with other interested agencies, plans to decide in the next few days to prolong the term of autumn sturgeon fishing in the North Caspian", Izmaylov said. ***** Kazakh News, October 5, 2000 CONFERENCE ON KAZAKHSTAN'S OIL HELD IN ALMATY TODAY. International conference on Kazakhstan's oil production and transportation was held in Almaty on October 4-5. The conference was held under auspices of the 8th International Oil and gas Exhibition started on October 3. More than 300 experts from 35 countries took part in the conference reportedly. Kazakh Vice Premier Danial Akhmetov told the conference's participants that in 10 years Kazakhstan would be able to produce up to 88 thousand tons of crude oil annually. According to Vice Premier Akhmetov, Kazakhstan will participate in construction of new pipelines connecting Kazakh oil fields with outer world as well. President of KazakhOil Company Nurlan Balghymbayev was also given a floor. Mr. Balghymbayev introduced the conference attendants with the latest achievements of Kazakhstan in oil producing sphere, also noting that Kazakhstan's oil producing sector was developing gradually. Kazakh Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik said that one of Kazakhstan's main priorities was the project on construction of U.S. supported Baku-Ceyhan oil route. ***** Nov-Dec 2000 Dispatch Mass Die-Off of Caspian Seals Caused by Canine Distemper Virus Seamus Kennedy,* Thijs Kuiken,+ Paul D. Jepson,+ Robert Deaville,+ Morag Forsyth,¬ Tom Barrett,¬ Marco W.G. van de Bildt,+ Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus,+ Tariel Eybatov,T Callan Duck,# Aidyn Kydyrmanov,** Igor Mitrofanov,++ Susan Wilson++ *Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; +Seal Rehabilitation and Research Center, Pieterburen, The Netherlands; +Institute of Zoology, Regents Park, London, UK; ¬Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright, Surrey, UK; TGeological Institute of the Azerbaijan Republic Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan; #Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St. Andrews, Fife, UK; **Laboratory of Virus Ecology, Institute of Microbiology and Virology, Almaty, Kazakhstan; ++Akademgorodok, Institute of Zoology, Almaty, Kazakhstan; ++Caspian Environment Programme Ecotoxicology Project, Portaferry, Northern Ireland, UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thousands of Caspian seals (Phoca caspica) died in the Caspian Sea from April to August 2000. Lesions characteristic of morbillivirus infection were found in tissue specimens from dead seals. Canine distemper virus infection was identified by serologic examination, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and sequencing of selected P gene fragments. These results implicate canine distemper virus infection as the primary cause of death. During the spring of 2000, high death rates were reported in Caspian seals (Phoca caspica) (1), which live only in the Caspian Sea and are listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (2). The die-off was first reported near the mouth of the Ural River, Kazakhstan, in late April; it subsequently spread south to the Mangistau region (Figure 1). More than 10,000 seals are estimated to have died during April and May along the Kazakhstan coast. High death rates were also reported in May and June along the Apsheron peninsula of Azerbaijan and the Turkmenistan coast. We present evidence that canine distemper virus infection was the primary cause of these deaths. Clinical signs in infected seals included debilitation, muscle spasms, ocular and nasal exudation, and sneezing. In necropsies performed in June on eight seals from Azerbaijan (Table), no consistent gross lesions were found. However, microscopic lesions, including broncho-interstitial pneumonia, encephalitis, pancreatitis, and lymphocytic depletion in lymphoid tissues, were seen in these and four seals found in Kazakhstan in May. Multiple intracytoplasmic and rare intranuclear acidophilic inclusions, characteristic of morbillivirus infection (3), were observed in many epithelial tissue specimens (Figure 2A). Paraffin-embedded tissue sections were examined for morbillivirus antigen by an immunohistochemical technique (4). A monoclonal antibody against the nucleoprotein of phocine distemper virus, known to cross-react with canine distemper virus and cetacean morbilliviruses, was used as primary antibody. Morbillivirus antigen was detected in multiple tissues, including lung, lymph nodes (Figure 2B), spleen, brain, pancreas, liver, and epithelial tissue of the reproductive, urinary, and gastrointestinal tracts. These multisystemic tissue lesions are characteristic of distemper in terrestrial and aquatic mammals (3). Tissues from 12 seal carcasses found on the coasts of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan (Table) were examined for morbillivirus nucleic acid by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). One set of universal morbillivirus primers, based on conserved sequences in the phosphoprotein (P) gene, and a second set specific for the canine distemper virus fusion (F) gene, were used in this technique (5). Tissues from nine seals were positive with both P and F primers, yielding the expected products of 429 bp and 372 bp, respectively. Selected P gene fragments were sequenced for phylogenetic comparison (Figure 3). The resulting sequences matched those of canine distemper virus and were clearly distinct from those of other members of the genus Morbillivirus, including phocine distemper virus. Except for one nucleotide change in the P gene fragment from seal 14, the sequences from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were identical, indicating that seals from widely separated regions of the Caspian Sea were infected by the same virus. This finding establishes spatial and temporal links between the seal deaths in these regions. These sequences were identical to that of canine distemper virus detected in 1997 in brain tissue from a single Caspian seal in which no evidence of morbillivirus lesions was found (6). These results suggest either persistence of canine distemper virus in the Caspian seal population over a period of several years or repeated spillover from the same terrestrial reservoir. Serum specimens from 13 seals (Table) were tested for canine distemper virus-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)M and IgG antibodies by an antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and an indirect ELISA, respectively (7). Eight of these seals had serum IgM antibodies, and 12 had IgG antibody titers ranging from 40 to 640. These serologic data confirm recent and geographically widespread canine distemper virus infection in the Caspian seal population. In recent years, several morbillivirus epizootics have occurred in pinniped and cetacean populations in the northern hemisphere (3). Canine distemper virus infection, the primary cause of high death rates in Baikal seals (Phoca siberica) in 1987-88 (8), was associated with a die-off in crab-eating seals (Lobodon carcinophagus) in Antarctica in 1955 (9). In both these pinniped populations, viral infection was thought to have been transmitted through contact with domestic dogs. The origin of the canine distemper virus that infected the Caspian seals is unknown, but there are anecdotal reports of contact between seals and terrestrial carnivores in this region (6). Further studies are required to determine if the latter species are infected with a canine distemper virus genetically similar to that found in the seals. The epidemiology of canine distemper virus infection, including its effects on the Caspian seal population, also remains to be investigated. High levels of chemical contaminants have been recently identified in tissues of Caspian seals (10). As some of these substances have been shown to have immunotoxic effects in seals at the reported concentrations (11), further work is under way to determine whether pollutants contributed to these deaths. This work was partially funded by the World Bank through a donation by the Japanese Consultant Trust Fund, as well as by the Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company. Dr. Kennedy is head of the Diagnostic Unit of the Veterinary Science Division, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Belfast, Northern Ireland. His research interests include morbilliviruses of aquatic mammmals and mammalian circoviruses. Address for correspondence: Seamus Kennedy, Veterinary Sciences Division, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3SD, Northern Ireland; fax: +44 28 90525767; e-mail: seamus.kennedy@dardni.gov.uk References 1.International Society for Infectious Diseases. Reports on diseases in seals. Promed-mail program for monitoring emerging infectious diseases. Available from: URL: http://www.promedmail.org [from home page click "Search the Archives," then enter "seals" in "Search Terms'" then click "Search in - Subject (Title)] 2.Baillie J, Groombridge B, editors. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for the Conservation of Nature; 1996. 3.Kennedy S. Morbillivirus infections in marine mammals. J Comp Pathol 1998;119:201-25. 4.Kennedy S, Smyth J, Cush PF, Duignan P, Platten M, McCullough SJ, et al. Histopathologic and immunocytochemical studies of distemper in seals. Vet Pathol 1989;26:97-103. 5.Barrett T, Visser IKG, Mamaev L, Goatley L, Van Bressem MF, Osterhaus ADME. Dolphin and porpoise morbilliviruses are genetically distinct from phocine distemper virus. Virology 1993;193:1010-2. 6.Forsyth MA, Kennedy S, Wilson S, Eybatov T, Barrett T. Canine distemper virus in a Caspian seal (Phoca caspica). Vet Rec 1998;143:662-4. 7.Osterhaus ADME, Rimmelzwaan GF, Martina BEE, Bestebroer TM, Fouchier RAM. Influenza B virus in seals. Science 2000;288:1051. 8.Osterhaus ADME, Groen J, UytdeHaag FGCM, Visser IKG, van de Bildt MGW, Bergman A, et al. Distemper virus in Baikal seals. Nature 1989;338:209-10. 9.Bengston JL, Boveng P, Franzen U, Have P, Heide-Jorgensen M-P, Harkonen TL. Antibodies to canine distemper virus in Antarctic seals. Marine Mammal Science 1991;7:85-7. 10.Hall AJ, Duck CD, Law RJ, Allchin CR, Wilson S, Eybatov T. Environmental Pollution 1999;106:203-12. 11.De Swart RL, Ross PS, Vedder LJ, Timmerman HH, Heisterkamp SH, Van Louveren H, Vos JG, Reijnders PJH, Osterhaus ADME. Impairment of immune function in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) feeding on fish from polluted waters. Ambio 1994;23:155-9. |