INTERVIEW - Gazprom sees Sakhalin-1 gas deal with Exxon
By Gleb Bryanski
KHABAROVSK, Russia, July 31 (Reuters) - Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom hopes this year to agree with U.S. energy major ExxonMobil Corp over gas supplies to a new far eastern pipeline, a senior Gazprom executive said on Friday.
Russia needs gas from the ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin-1 project to feed industrial growth in its Far East, a point emphasised by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a ceremony to launch welding of a major trunk pipeline that will run to the port of Vladivostok.
"We will hold negotiations (with ExxonMobil). We hope to conclude them this year," Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Ananenkov told Reuters in an interview.
Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, plans to start gas flows through the far eastern pipeline in the third quarter of 2011. But the company has yet to secure the gas from offshore deposits around the Pacific island of Sakhalin.
After the inauguration ceremony, Putin asked Ananenkov to guarantee gas deliveries by 2012 for a new car assembly line being constructed by Russian firm Sollers, a project aimed at denting Japanese cars' dominance in Russia's Far East.
Ananenkov responded by saying Gazprom did not have gas for Sollers because it cannot contract enough for the new pipeline from the operators of the Sakhalin-1 consortium. He asked for state help.
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