Project Benefits

Community Activities

A successful business can contribute to the well-being of a community by creating jobs, paying taxes and providing products that consumers want and need - all of which the Sakhalin-1 Consortium is doing.

But good citizenship requires more. Seeking to improve the quality of life in the communities in which it operates is a key objective for Sakhalin-1. To help achieve this, the project provides support for local organizations, with an emphasis on health and education programs.

Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL), operator of the Sakhalin-1 Project, has contributed over US$ 3.5 million to charitable programs in Sakhalin, Ulchi and Nikolaevsk Districts (Khabarovsk Krai), as part of the worldwide contributions program of the Exxon Mobil Corporation. The following is a description of the latest Sakhalin-1 initiatives in the main contribution program areas.

EDUCATION

Sakhalin Regional Teacher of the Year Contest

ENL supports educational organizations, as well as provides support directly for elementary and secondary schools, as a means of improving teaching and learning in pre-college institutions.

Our main focus is supporting organizations, schools and programs in pursuit of the following goals:

Improving science education and encouragement of teacher preparation and professional development;
Providing educational materials and equipment and sponsoring student programs and extracurricular activities to enhance the quality of learning.

Over 20 local grantees received contributions this year, including:

Sakhalin State University, for purchase of equipment for the media laboratory of the Journalism Faculty.
Junior Achievement of Sakhalin, which helps students K-12 to learn the basics of business and economics, and to use this knowledge in practice in students companies. In 2005 over 7,500 students participated in the JA events up from 1,980 students in 2000.
Sakhalin Oblast Department of Education, where ENL is the General Sponsor for the annual Teacher of the Year Competition, spotlighting excellence in education.
Logos Club, which organizes intellectual competitions (trivia contests) for high-school and college-age students in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. During the years of ENL's sponsorship more than two thousand students have participated in Logos Club, which regularly advances teams to the Far East and Siberia Open Championships competitions.

Safety Wheel Festival 2006

Volunteer Involvement Program. ENL provides small grants to support employees' volunteer activities in schools and kindergartens that their children attend. Over the years, through their efforts ENL parents have made possible field trips to natural history sites, classroom improvements, book purchases, and many other contributions.
Val Settlement (Nogliki District) Secondary School, for purchase of personal computers to improve computer training resources.
Sakhalin Oblast Traffic Inspectorate and the Sakhalin Oblast Committee of sports and physical culture. ENL is the traditional annual sponsor for the Safety Wheel children's traffic safety festival, in which teams from all over Sakhalin compete to show their knowledge of the rules of the road.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Education Department, to sponsor academic Olympiads in which over 1500 high school students take part each year.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Special Correction Comprehensive School

Special Correction Comprehensive School for Mentally Challenged Children, for purchase of athletic equipment and educational materials.

HEALTH

ENL supports programs targeted to health issues, because we believe that good health is a cornerstone of opportunity and achievement. Our contributions to health-related organizations address both broad social challenges as well as local community needs.

Emphasis is placed on supporting organizations and programs that:

Address disease and health priorities in areas where poverty serves as an obstacle to basic health services;
Extend the knowledge of environmental health and health effects issues related to our business operations;
Further public health education as it relates to our business, including for historically under-represented or under-served groups, such as minorities and settlement citizens.

The following organizations received contributions this year:

Val Settlement Paramedics-Midwife Station: medical equipment

Paramedics-Midwife Stations in remote areas (Val, Nekrasovka): purchase of medical equipment.
Nogliki Secondary School: purchase of medical equipment.
Support of the International Conference "Publicly Accessible Defibrillation and Preventive Measures for Sudden Cardio Death".

CIVIC AND COMMUNITY SERVICE. ARTS AND MUSEUMS

ENL supports civic and community service organizations that meet critical social needs and enhance social and economic conditions, particularly in locations of our business operations. ENL also supports cultural organizations, which provide greater community and social access to art.

Examples of organizations and programs that received contributions this year include:

Val Settlement Paramedics-Midwife Station: medical equipment

Sakhalin Culture Fund rewards gifted youth and professionals for their contribution in culture and arts.
Publication of the Sakhalin Oblast Commemorative Book dedicated to the history of Sakhalin from 1930 to 1950.
Centennial Celebrations of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Park.
Okha Central Library: purchase of office equipment, software and books.
Okha Children Library: purchase of personal computers and office equipment.
Sakhalin Regional Library: purchase of equipment for "American Corner".
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Chamber Orchestra: purchase of musical instruments and sponsorship of concerts.

INDIGENOUS MINORITY PEOPLE OF THE NORTH (IMPN)

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Chamber Orchestra

IMPN is an important recipient of ENL contributions in all above mentioned area. On Sakhalin ENL realizes its contributions programs addressed to IMPN in coordination with the Sakhalin Oblast Targeted Program of social and economic development of IMPN and in close cooperation with local organizations of IMPN in Okha and Nogliki Districts.

The following is a brief list of this year's programs:

Heirs of Traditions Sakhalin Oblast Folk Arts Festival;
Sakhalin Oblast IMPN Championship in national sports;
Told Ard Nivkh national Holiday;
Chamgun Nogliki district, Nivkhi National-Cultural Autonomy: publication of a book of IMPN legends and folk tales;

Heirs of Traditions Sakhalin Oblast IMPN Folk Arts Festival

Support of IMPN children summer camps;
Support of the Pila Ken Nivkh Folk Ensemble from Nekrasovka Settlement (Okha District).

Ulchi District (Khabarovsk Krai) Association of Indigenous Minority Peoples of the North, where ENL signed a Statement of Mutual Support and Cooperation in December, 2003 and formed an Advisory Board to consult ENL on its charitable contributions to the indigenous community. As a result, ENL every year donates to many IMPN organizations in this district.

ENL financed the following organizations and programs this year, in cooperation with the Association:

Summer camp for IMPN children from Ulchi District;
Support of the Giva IMPN Folk Ensemble (Bulava Settlement);
Tourist equipment for IMPN children of the De-Kastri Settlement;

In presence of US Ambassador William Burns, US General Consul in Vladivostok, USAID and Sakhalin-1 Consortium representatives ENL Vice-president Al Short delivers to the Sakhalin Small Enterprise Development Foundation Director Kennett Smith confirmation letter on final payment on $500,000 contribution.

ENL Vice-president Al Short delivers confirmation letter on final payment on $500,000 contribution.

Equipment for restoration of documents in the Bogorodskoye Public Museum;
Sponsorship of the Ulchi District Nivkh delegation participation in the 1st Nivkh Congress;
Support of the Bulava social center;
Contribution of furniture, athletic and other equipment for Sofijsk and Tyr Boarding Schools;
Equipment for the sewing lab of Khabarovsk Technical College Bulava Branch.

COMMUNITY AND SMALL BUSINESS INVESTMENT

Sakhalin-1 has also embarked on community investment activities that are broader in scope and purpose than our charitable giving. In addition to the $100 million contributed to the Sakhalin Development Fund from 2003 to 2008 (stipulated in the Production Sharing Agreement), Sakhalin-1 is involved in the following initiatives:

Over $120 million to date has been committed to public infrastructure work for project use, such as upgrading roads and bridges in the north of Sakhalin, port improvements in Kholmsk, and improvements to airports in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Bogorodskoye and Nogliki. In particular, Nogliki airport received an extensive upgrade, with new terminals, modern all-weather navigational equipment, and runway paving.
In 2004 Sakhalin-1 Consortium and USAID launched a $500,000 small business micro-finance program in the northern Sakhalin districts of Nogliki and Okha, with the idea of providing a "hand-up, not a hand-out" to entrepreneurs who want to create jobs and capture more of the investment dollars now working in their towns. The emphasis is on lending to financially-viable small business plans that could not otherwise obtain commercial bank loans. Once a small business "outgrows" its need in the North Sakhalin Credit Program, it may transition to commercial bank loans. The program is designed to supplement rather than compete with existing lending institutions.

On August 23, 2006, in the presence of US Ambassador William Burns, the Sakhalin-1 Consortium made the final payment on its $500,000 contribution. The goal of the North Sakhalin Credit Program is that it will become operationally self-sustaining. That means the Sakhalin-1 Consortium's contribution, thanks to the program's market-based design, will continue to provide loans to qualifying small businessmen for years and years to come. It is "the gift that keeps on giving."