Financial Times: BANK PRESIDENT COUNTS COST OF REMARKS IN CONFERENCE CALL: “Jean Lemierre, president of the EBRD, yesterday stoked controversy over the cost of Sakhalin-2…”: “On a conference call to journalists, Mr Lemierre said: "The total cost of the project is estimated, not by me but by the company, to be more than $20bn [£11.3bn] - $20bn to $22bn, according to the figures given by the consortium.": Thursday 15 December 2005

By Thomas Catan

Published: December 15 2005

Jean Lemierre, president of the EBRD, yesterday stoked controversy over the cost of Sakhalin-2, writes Thomas Catan.

On a conference call to journalists, Mr Lemierre said: "The total cost of the project is estimated, not by me but by the company, to be more than $20bn [£11.3bn] - $20bn to $22bn, according to the figures given by the consortium."

Shell, which owns 55 per cent of the project and is in the midst of delicate talks with the Russian government over costs, denied the cost exceeded $20bn, which is itself twice the project's original estimate.

The EBRD later withdrew the remarks.

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