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302 MIDSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM OPERATIONS
understanding of the history of Sakhalin Island provides an important cultural perspec-
tive on the modern midstream and downstream Sakhalin‐2 sectors. We summarize the
history of Sakhalin Island (Vysokov, 1996) and then describe the Sakhalin‐2
infrastructure.

15.4.1 History of Sakhalin Island

The earliest inhabitants of southern Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, and the north-
ernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido were people known as the Okhotsk culture
(Figure 15.7). Their economy was based on fishing, hunting, and shore gathering.
The earliest mention of the Okhotsk peoples was in an ancient Chinese geography
book called the Sengai‐kyo from the Khan dynasty sometime between 206 b.c. and
a.d. 220. The Sengai‐kyo reported that the frontier of Japan in a.d. 0 extended as far
north as the Amur River.
The Nihon shoki, an ancient Japanese history book, described a battle that was
fought between a Japanese army and the local population at a big river that was
believed to be the Amur River in a.d. 658. Contact between the people of Sakhalin
Island and their Asian neighbors was not always hostile. Buddhism was brought to
Sakhalin Island in the thirteenth century by a Japanese monk. Matsumae, the Lord of
the northern frontier of Japan, sent explorers to Sakhalin Island in a.d. 1635. The
explorers mapped Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, and Kamchatka.

Bering
Russia Sea

Sakhalin Kamchatka Peninsula
Island
Amur River Sea of

China Russia Tatar Strait Okhotsk

Paci
c
Ocean
Kuril Islands

Sea of
Japan Hokkaido
Japan 0km 1,000 km

FIguRE 15.7 Sakhalin Island region. (Source: © energy.fanchi.com (2015).)