MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project on Russia's largest Far East island, said in a letter to the Natural Resources Ministry that it would submit a detailed plan next week on rectifying environmental violations.

The company, majority owned by oil major Royal Dutch Shell, has come under attack from Russia's environmental authorities in recent months over large-scale destruction to the island's ecology.

In a letter to Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev, Sakhalin Energy CEO Ian Craig confirmed the company's readiness to hold continual, constructive dialogue with the ministry and with the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources, Russia's environmental watchdog.

The agency's deputy head Oleg Mitvol, who is leading investigations, said earlier his expert group had found numerous violations of conditions set out in the feasibility study for Sakhalin II, including the illegal routing of an oil pipeline through the territory of a national preservation area and environmental damage at Aniva Bay.

Mass fish and crab deaths have been reported in the area, and inspectors earlier established that a Sakhalin Energy vessel dumped a mixture of methylene dichloride and lubricating oil into the bay.

Craig also said in his letter that the company had already rectified 98% of environmental damage in the Makarov region, on the Okhotsk Sea, and had addressed the environmental watchdog with a request to hold a joint inspection of the area.

He also told Trutnev that the company would quickly and effectively rectify all violations discovered in the course of the new inspection, which started October 3, 2006.

Trutnev, who will hold a conference in Sakhalin on October 25 on investigations into the project, said in response to the letter that it was too early to speak of inspection results, but it was highly probable that authorities would demand compensation from Sakhalin Energy for damages.

The Sakhalin II project comprises an oil field with associated gas, a natural gas field with associated condensate production, a pipeline, a liquefied natural gas plant and an LNG export terminal. The two fields hold reserves totaling 150 million metric tons of oil, and 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas.