MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Head of ExxonMobil Darren Woods at a meeting in Moscow in March confirmed his interest in participating in projects in Russia, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.

"We had a working meeting. We got acquainted with each other, discussed the current situation with the projects ExxonMobil is taking part in on the territory of Russia. The key project is certainly the Sakhalin-1 project. There is also a number of smaller projects involving the company. In fact, we were satisfied with our conversation, because the company confirmed commitment to its presence on the Russian market and the interest in implementing joint projects," Novak said.

Earlier this month, Russian President’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the meeting of President Vladimir Putin with Exxon Mobil President Darren Woods can be explained by the company's active work.

According to him, it was the first meeting with the new head of the company. Head of Rosneft Igor Sechin and Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak also attended the meeting, Peskov said.

Peskov refused to talk about the details of the conversation, including answering the question about the prospects for resumption of drilling in the Kara Sea.

In Russia, ExxonMobil is involved in the Sakhalin-1 project.

Sakhalin-1 (Rosneft - 20%, US’ ExxonMobil - 30%, Japan’s Sodeco - 30%, India’s ONGC - 20%) envisages production of hydrocarbons at three offshore fields - Chaivo, Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi, north-east off the Sakhalin Island.

Russia’s state owned oil company Rosneft also intends to implement (in partnership with ExxonMobil) the project of the Far Eastern LNG plant. The plant’s production capacity on the first stage is 5 million tonnes per year with possible expansion in the future.

Rosneft launched the project for the construction of the Far Eastern LNG plant in 2013. The project cost is estimated at $8 billion.

Due to sanctions imposed against Russia, the US oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil limited its participation in cooperation with Rosneft in the Arctic region.

The company scaled down 9 out of 10 joint projects with Rosneft, including exploration and potential production in the offshore area in the Black Sea, in the Arctic and in Western Siberia. In particular, the company's cooperation with Rosneft on geological exploration in the Kara Sea came under sanctions, where the Pobeda field was discovered in 2014 with reserves of 130 million tonnes of oil and 499.2 billion cubic meters of gas.