(Adds Sakhalin Energy saying no impact, paragraphs 10-11)

By Ajay Kamalakaran

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia, Aug 2 (Reuters) - A series of three earthquakes killed two people on Russia's Pacific island of Sakhalin on Thursday, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.

Japan's Meteorological Agency registered the first earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 off Sakhalin. It was felt in nearby Japan but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury there.

A Reuters reporter on Sakhalin said he felt three tremors, over a two-hour period. The third, at about 4:00 p.m. (0500 GMT) was the most intense, said the reporter who was in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the main city on Sakhalin island.

He said the second tremor made light fittings swing, while chairs moved across the room during the third.

Local office workers ran on to the street fearing the third tremor was a major quake they had been anticipating.

The emergencies ministry said a 30-year-old woman died when the building she was in collapsed in the town of Nevelsk. A man also died in the town as he was being evacuated from a building. Two other people were hurt.

"Cracks appeared in buildings and furniture fell over inside apartments, but there is no damage to other towns, only to Nevelsk. Energy supplies have also been disrupted," said Sergei Viktorov, the local Russian emergencies ministry spokesman.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatched Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu to the area to help those who lost their homes and property, the Kremlin press service said.

ENERGY INVESTORS

The local offices of international consortium Sakhalin Energy and Exxon Mobil Corp, which is developing massive oil and gas resources off Sakhalin, sent employees home.

But Sakhalin Energy said its operations were not affected. "We haven't seen any impact from the quake," said the consortium's spokesman, Ivan Chernyakovsky.

Sakhalin Energy, which is made up of Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, operates the Sakhalin-2 project. Exxon leads a group developing the Sakhalin-1 project.

In 1995, the island was hit by Russia's worst recorded earthquake, which killed 1,989 people from the town Neftegorsk.

Yuri Levin, acting director of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismic station, said there was no immediate reason to panic.

"Sakhalin is in a seismically sensitive zone and there is a chance of a major earthquake sometime in the next 50 years."

A small tsunami caused by the earthquake, with waves of up to 30 cm (12 inches) hit the west coast of Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido without causing damage. (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in Tokyo and Dmitry Zhdannikov in Moscow)

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