MOSCOW, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday Moscow was keen that the Sakhalin-2 project go ahead, but said its halt was mandated by Russian law.
"The current checks do not mean at all that the license to develop the fields within the framework of Sakhalin-2 project will be annulled," he told the Sakhalin Oil and Gas conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. "The purpose of the checks is to guarantee the honest implementation of the terms of the agreement by all the sides concerned. This is in keeping with the requirements of our legislation and with the specific provisions of the production-sharing agreements, which stipulate, among other things, the right of Russian authorized structures to consider and endorse the capital expenditures of the oil companies tapping the deposits on the terms of the production-sharing agreements."
The comments were reported by the Itar-Tass news agency.
He said he hoped the final commissioning of the Sakhalin projects will contributed to "regional stability."
Earlier this month, Russia withdrew the environmental permit of the project, which brings together Royal Dutch Shell, the majority shareholder, with Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Sakhalin-2 is the only major project in Russia that has no Russian participation and critics say that the move is meant to increase pressure to allow Russian firms access. Shell has said it will allow Russia's state-run Gazprom to buy a 25 percent stake.
The Oil and Gas of Sakhalin conference brought together about 300 chiefs of major global oil and gas companies.
The project is expected to come online in 2008.
