Russia starts drilling first offshore gas wells

A Gazprom-led energy project in eastern Russia that plans to export gas to Asia and the United States from 2008 has begun drilling the country's first offshore gas wells, the consortium said on Monday. "The commencement of drilling of the first wells from Lunskoye-A platform is a major development milestone," Ian Craig, the CEO of Sakhalin Energy, operator of the Sakhalin-2 project, was quoted as saying.
"Lunskoye-A will provide the main volume of gas for LNG (liquefied natural gas) production, opening the new energy markets in Asia-Pacific and North America for Russia," Craig said.
Russian state-controlled Gazprom acquired a 50 percent plus one share stake in Sakhalin-2 last year from the three shareholders in the consortium - British-Dutch oil major Shell and Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi.
The deal came after months of official pressure on the foreign firms from Russian environmental authorities that was widely seen as a politically motivated campaign to ease Gazprom's entry into the project.