RusEnergy

SAKHALIN I 13 February 2007 - Upstream onLine - ExxonMobil has not yet completed a sales deal for gas from the Sakhalin I development off Russia and is still in talks with other parties, the supermajor's boss Rex Tillerson said today. "We do continue to look at all the other options on gas sales, because we have not concluded anything ... with the Chinese," Tillerson said, speaking at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates CERA Week conference in Houston. "There's still great interest from the Japanese to purchase the gas. There's great interest from the Indians to purchase the gas. And we continue to have discussions with all those potential customers," Reuters quoted him as saying. Tillerson said ExxonMobil's obligation to the Russian government is to achieve the best value for the gas it produces. ExxonMobil reached a memorandum of understanding to supply gas from Sakhalin I to China National Petroleum Corporation in November 2004. Tillerson said the company's current plan would be to build a pipeline to China that mostly ran along the route of an existing pipeline. Sakhalin 1 is being closely watched after Gazprom took the majority stake in Sakhalin 2, operated by Shell. Many analysts believe the takeover amounts to a renationalisation. However, Tillerson said he believes the Russian government is happy with the company's performance.