24-09-03 Plans to pump natural gas produced off the coast of Sakhalin, Russia, to Japan via pipeline may be altered if it proves economically more rewarding to sell the gas to China, according to comments made by Galina Pavlova, the Sakhalin regional government's oil and gas director.
Pavlova said the gas would be sold to China if it proves to be an economically better choice.

The Sakhalin 1 oil and gas field, which lies off the island of Sakhalin in the Russian Far East, is being developed by ExxonMobil, Japan Petroleum Exploration, Itochu and Marubeni.
Laying a 1,500 km pipeline to Japan would require huge investments. Exxon Mobil has said that unless definite commitments to buy the gas are reached with users in Japan, the producers will begin looking to sell the gas to China.