Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree installing a new operator for a massive international oil-and-gas project in Russia's Far East, affecting billions of investment dollars from major U.S., Japanese, and Indian companies.
The maneuver and decree on October 7 appear to repeat a strategy that the Kremlin has used recently to seize other foreign-owned energy assets.
Putin ordered that authority be given to the Russian government to decide whether foreign stakeholders in the massive Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project may retain their holdings in the joint venture.
The move toward nationalization further complicates U.S. Exxon Mobil's efforts to exit Russia since international sanctions were imposed over Putin's order of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February. Exxon has a 30-percent stake in the operations of Sakhalin-1.
SEE ALSO: EU Leaders No Closer To Price Cap On Russian Gas After Informal Summit In PragueIt also sets up possible disputes with Japanese Sodeco, which has a 50-percent stake, and India's ONGC Videsh.
Neither Exxon nor Sodeco immediately responded to Putin's decree.
The Kremlin order cites the establishment of a Russian company under Rosneft subsidiary Sakhalinmorneftegaz-shelf to control investors' rights in Sakhalin-1.
It sets a one-month deadline once that company is established for foreign partners to request shares in the new entity via the Russian government.
The United States has helped lead the unprecedented trade and other sanctions since Russia's full-scale invasion began, while Japan stopped buying Russian oil in June.
New Delhi has mostly remained silent on the Russian aggression against its post-Soviet neighbor, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested in September at his first face-to-face meeting with Putin since the invasion that "today's era is not one for war."
The Sakhalin-1 project off Sakhalin Island on Russia's eastern coast operates three fields in the Okhotsk Sea, using advanced extended-reach technology for some of the longest wells in the world.
Putin used a July decree to seize full control of a sister project in the Far East, Sakhalin-2, in which Shell and Japan's Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp were partners.