By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Plans for a massive oil terminal near the Ukrainian port of Odessa are now likely to be drastically scaled down or abandoned entirely, reports in late August indicated. The project has been the focus of a vigorous struggle by environmentalists alarmed at the additional threat it poses to the ravaged ecosystems of the Black Sea.
For almost eight weeks, environmental activists from many parts of the former Soviet Union staffed an international protest camp near the site, on the coast east of Odessa. Despite arrests and beatings by police, the activists worked at publicising the dangers of the scheme, and at keeping pressure on local and national politicians. Construction work on the site has now been halted.
The building of the terminal, aimed at freeing Ukraine from dependence on oil transported via Russian pipelines, has been ardently sought by Ukrainian nationalists. Plans for the work were approved under former president Leonid Kravchuk, and construction began in May. The first stage of the scheme, due for completion over two and a half years, would provide an annual capacity of 12 million tons. The plans provide for expanding this eventually to 40 million tons, equal to Ukraine's entire oil imports.
These projections have aroused horror in environmentalists. The geography of the site is such that it would be virtually impossible to contain even minor oil spills. One of the moorages would be located on the Odessa shoal, the breeding ground for 65% of the Black Sea's fish and 70% of its total biomass. A major accident here would have catastrophic consequences for the whole Black Sea ecology.
Even "normal" construction work would cause serious damage, by stirring up heavily polluted seabed sediments.
The ecosystems of the Black Sea are already near collapse as pollutants continue to pour in from the industries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In less than 10 years, the total fish catch has declined seven-fold. The once-rich meadows of seagrass and bottom-growing algae on the sea's north-west shelf are now only one-tenth their previous size.
In launching the oil terminal project, the Ukrainian government breached international treaty obligations under which it agreed not to build new industrial installations on the Black Sea coast.
Apparatus divided
However, the first concerted opposition to the project had its roots neither in environmental scruples nor in respect for international law. Instead, it appears to have derived from struggles for influence and property between various groups within the state apparatus.
In mid-June the Odessa Provincial Soviet voted to overturn a decision by the local Sychavsky Rural Soviet transferring land for the terminal. The reason cited was that the local soviet's decision had violated the Ukrainian land code, which prohibits the alienation of prime agricultural land for other purposes.
The real causes, however, were widely considered to be a desire to stop control over land from slipping out of the grasp of the apparatus, and antipathy among the functionaries of Russian-speaking Odessa Province to the Ukrainian nationalists' dream of a Ukraine quite separate economically from Russia.
Meanwhile, construction work by the Swiss contracting firm was continuing, even though the provincial authorities had obtained a court order blocking it.
On July 6 the first groups of environmentalists arrived and set up a protest camp near the terminal site. The initial organising work had been carried out by a radical environmental group, the Rainbow Keepers, but representatives of many green tendencies were present.
Over the following weeks the population of the camp reached some 45 to 50 people, most from Russia but also including Ukrainians. The protesters were demanding that work on the terminal be halted, that the site be returned to its previous users and that damage already caused to the environment be put right.
As a new and unexpected element of the local political scene, the activists found themselves in a cauldron of antagonistic claims and interests.
The local soviet, widely thought to have received a handsome kickback for signing the land over to the construction organisation, was hostile. The Odessa Provincial Soviet, though technically an ally of the protesters, regarded popular involvement in the struggle as a threat, and made clear it did not want green activists as supporters. The police, who were supposed to be enforcing the ban on construction, spent rather more of their time harassing campaigners.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian nationalists turned up at the protest camp to stage a counter-picket against the "Russian" interlopers. And when the protesters tried to organise stumps in central Odessa, they were kept on the move by unsubtle threats from local mafiosi.
Odessa residents responded sympathetically to the campaign, with an opinion poll showing that 65% of local people supported the protesters' demands. But when protesters tried to picket outside the building of the provincial executive committee on July 21, they were arrested and interrogated. The following day, in an unprovoked attack, 14 activists were herded by police into a courtyard and beaten up.
Change of plans
In the final days of July, the ban on construction work was made to stick, though equipment continued to be delivered to the terminal site.
The protest camp remained in place throughout August, until a planned shutdown on September 2. By this time, the administration of new Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma was taking a sceptical look at the oil terminal project.
At a news briefing on August 23, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, a top economic adviser to Kuchma, stated that the question needed to be re-examined. "It is a shame this was approached not from an economic standpoint but rather under the pressure of political considerations", Kuznetsov reportedly observed. The project, he hinted strongly, would at the very least be scaled down.
After the spending of some US$9 million, the terminal project is now likely to fall victim to the Kuchma administration's acceptance that Ukraine's economy must remain closely integrated with those of the other former Soviet republics. The new leaders appear to have realised that even if the terminal were built, the costs and technical difficulties of reorienting Ukraine's oil transport and refining system away from Russian oil would still be exorbitant.
There is no clear evidence that the administration's "new thinking" on the oil terminal includes a concern for the ecosystems of the Black Sea. Nevertheless, green activists in Moscow are guardedly pleased with the results of the Odessa protest.
A sizeable campaign was mounted and sustained for several months. The oil terminal became a significant media issue — something that would have been difficult to imagine otherwise.
And if Ukrainian leaders have not made any notable response to the demands of the environmental movement, the protest camp nevertheless showed that the movement is a viable public force. There is every sign that in future, it will pose a real danger to politicians who fail to take environmental issues seriously.