MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - The partners in the Sakhalin I oil and gas project are considering natural gas supplies to China, Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov said Friday.Rosneft, a Russian state-owned oil company, is involved in the project.
Exxon Neftegaz Ltd., the project operator, is currently working on this issue, Bogdanchikov said.
Sakhalin I is implemented as part of a production sharing agreement, and develops oil and natural gas on the northeastern shelf of the island of Sakhalin (the Russian Far East). In October 2001, the project, which includes the Chaivo, Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi oil-and-gas fields, was declared profitable. The estimated recoverable resources are 2.3 billion barrels (307 million metric tons) of oil and 485 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
The production sharing agreement came into force in 1996. The investor of the project is a Consortium of the following companies: Exxon Neftegaz Limited - 30%, Japan's SODEKO - 30%, two Russian companies RN-Astra LLC - 8.5% and Sakhalinmorneftegaz-Shelf - 11.5%, and India's ONGK Videsh Limited - 20% (it joined the project in 2001 by purchasing a part of the Russian participants' share).
Rosneft is the only Russian oil company that is completely owned by the state. It is Russia's second largest producer after LUKoil. In 2005, Rosneft is set to produce over 78 million metric tons of oil.
