ExxonMobil said it plans to discontinue operations at Sakhalin-1 in northeastern Russia and will develop steps to exit the venture in response to Russian military action in Ukraine. The company said it is fully complying with all sanctions and will not invest in new developments in Russia given the current situation, it said in a release Mar. 1.
Exxon Neftegas Ltd., an ExxonMobil Corp. (USA) subsidiary, is operator of Sakhalin-1 project with 30% stake. As such, the process to discontinue operations will need to be carefully managed and closely coordinated with the co-venturers to ensure it is executed safely, the company said.
After additional exploration and confirmation of reserves, the first Sakhalin-1 production wells were drilled at the offshore Chayvo field in 2003 and early oil production began in 2005. In 2010, Odoptu field was put on stream, and 5 years later, in 2015, first oil flowed from the Berkut platform in Arkutun-Dagi field (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2015). Currently, all the Sakhalin-1 license blocks are producing. Planned peak production of 34,000 tonnes/day was achieved in 2007 (OGJ Online, Feb. 22, 2007). Sakhalin-1 reached a new peak of 41,000 tonnes/day in 2018.
Project partners are two Rosneft affiliates: RN-Astra (8.5%) and Sakhalinmorneftegaz-Shelf (11.5%), the Japanese SODECO Consortium (30%), and India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd. (20%).