Japan's Marubeni is in talks Russia's largest oil producer, Rosneft, about potential participation in oil and gas projects in the Okhotsk Sea off the coast of the Far Eastern Magadan region, a statement Thursday from the Magadan region government said.
"In our opinion, these projects have decent prospects for hydrocarbon deliveries to East Asian countries, given their geographic proximity," Yoshiko Miyazaki, head of Marubeni's Europe and CIS strategic planning department, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Rosneft is expected to complete the licensing process for the right to develop several blocks offshore Magadan in September, the statement said.
In late July, Japan and Russia agreed to move forward on prospective oil and gas projects in Russia's Far East and East Siberia, including a planned LNG project in Vladivostok and a joint venture to explore and develop hydrocarbon resources in the Okhotsk Sea and East Siberia.
The July talks included senior officials from Russia's Ministry of Energy and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
At the talks, Russia's Gazprom and Rosneft presented on various projects, while Japanese companies were represented by Inpex Corp., Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., or Japex, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, Marubeni, Chiyoda and Toyo Engineering.
Marubeni is a part of the offshore Sakhalin 1 production-sharing agreement in Russia's Far East though its 12% stake in the Japanese consortium Sodeco. ExxonMobil holds an operating 30% stake in the project, while Sodeco holds 30%, and Rosneft and India's ONGC each hold 20%.
