Russia on Wednesday released a report detailing delays at a huge oil and gas project operated by US energy giant ExxonMobil near Japan and at an Arctic oil field operated by France's Total. The Russian Audit Chamber's report did not threaten legal action, but previous investigations of foreign oil firms working in Russia have been a prelude to government take-overs of their projects.
Exxon Neftegas, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil which operates the Sakhalin-1 offshore oil and gas field on Sakhalin Island, did not finish drilling planned for 2008 in accordance with a government-approved plan, the report said. The report also said Exxon Neftegas and Russian energy giant Gazprom had failed to begin work aimed at delivering natural gas from Sakhalin-1 to the city of Vladivostok by 2011.
It noted that the gas was needed to prepare for a summit in Vladivostok in 2012 of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum. Russia is sprucing up the city ahead of the show-piece event. Sakhalin Island is located just north of Japan in Russia's far east and is home to a number of lucrative energy projects.
Another one of them, Sakhalin-2, was accused of environmental violations in 2006 and the next year Gazprom acquired 50 percent plus one share of the project, which had originally been led by Royal Dutch Shell.
In their report on Wednesday, auditors also faulted France's Total for delays in the 2008 drilling plan for the Kharyaga oil field, located in the Nenets region of the Russian far north. The Kharyaga project - controlled 50 percent by Total, 40 percent by Norway's StatoilHydro and 10 percent by the Nenets region government - has also come under pressure due to alleged environmental violations.
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