ABU DHABI, October 2. /TASS/. India has not received an offer to buy Exxon's stake in the new operator of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project. Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Pankaj Jain told reporters about this on the sidelines of the ADIPEC oil and gas exhibition.
"We haven’t received such an offer," he said.
The representative of the ministry recalled that India is represented in several oil projects in Russia, including that an Indian company already has a stake in Sakhalin-1.
"We’re presented in number of oil assets in Russia, Sakhalin 1 is an excellent example,’’ he said.
Situation around Sakhalin-1
In late September, the Russian government approved the procedure for the valuation and sale of Exxon's stake in the new operator of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project. The procedure implies that only a Russian legal entity that meets certain criteria and bids the highest will be eligible to receive it.
In April, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to extend the deadline for the sale of Exxon's stake in the Sakhalin-1 project until fall 2023. Initially, it was decided that if a foreign company withdraws from the project and decides not to transfer its stake, the Russian authorities are to evaluate and sell this stake within 4 months. Now, by a decree dated April 5, this period has been extended by 12 months until mid-November of this year.
In fall 2022, the Russian authorities transferred the operator of the Sakhalin-1 project to Russian jurisdiction. LLC Sakhalin-1, registered in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, took over for Exxon Neftegaz as the project’s operator. Sakhalinmorneftegaz-shelf, a subsidiary of Rosneft, became the operating company of Sakhalin-1 LLC.
The new project operator, LLC Sakhalin-1, was registered on October 14, 2022. The Russian government allowed the transfer of a 20% stake in Sakhalin-1 to the Indian ONGC Videsh Limited, as well as a 30% stake to the Japanese Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co. Ltd. (Sodeco). Rosneft holds 20% in the project. The stake of Exxon Neftegas (subsidiary of ExxonMobil) was 30%, but it announced its withdrawal from the project in March 2022.