YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Supplies of oil from fields near Russia's Far Eastern island of Sakhalin will start to the Pacific Rim in October, a representative of state-owned oil company Rosneft said Monday.
Several energy projects are under way on Sakhalin and Russia is looking to send some crude supplies to energy hungry Asia and gas, particularly in liquefied form, to the United States.
"We hope the work will be finished. These will be supplies from Sakhalin-I [deposits] to Asia-Pacific countries," said Lev Brodsky, head of Sakhalin Projects, a Rosneft subsidiary that acts as a government agent in foreign oil projects in Russia.
Brodsky said the deposits being developed under the Sakhalin-I project were so far yielding 60,000 barrels per day. But he added that output would be increased to 250,000 barrels in January after the commissioning of new onshore facilities and annual output in 2007 would be 11.5-12 million metric tons (about 8.8 million barrels).
"We will start production ...with the maximum capacity [in January]," Brodsky said, adding that construction was nearing an end and everything had proceeded according to schedule.
Three deposits, Chaivo, Odoptu, and Arkutun-Dagi located on the northeastern shelf, are being developed under the project. Their potential recoverable reserves are estimated at around 307 billion metric tons of oil (2.25 trillion barrels) and 485 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Over $12 billion in investment is required.
The consortium, developing the deposits, include Exxon Neftegas Limited, the operator for the project with a 30% working interest, Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development, holding 30% of shares, Rosneft (30%), and India's ONGC Videsh Ltd. (30%).
Brodsky also said talks with China on gas supplies could be completed by the end of the year.
"We are holding talks on exports to China with CNPC. The talks have been rather dynamic, and we hope we will complete them before the end of the year," he said, adding that the China National Petroleum Corporation and the multinational consortium were still to agree on a pricing formula for gas supplies.
China is expected to receive about 8 billion cubic meters of gas annually within 20 years, although earlier the country had asked for 10 billion cubic meters a year.
