Russ Oil-Gas

07 February 2008 - Upstream OnLine - Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom will sign a deal to buy the entire annual gas output from the Sakhalin 1 project led by US supermajor ExxonMobil in April or May, senior executive Alexander Ananekov said today. "The dynamics (of talks) have recently been positive and we hope to sign a binding agreement with ExxonMobil to buy 11 billion cubic metres of gas in April-May," Alexander Ananekov told Gazprom chairman and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev said he supported Gazprom's request to transfer to the gas export monopoly all three blocks of the neighbouring Sakhalin 3 field for exploration without holding a state auction. "Get the documents ready. We, in the government, will do what we can," he said.