ExxonMobil is drilling the field as part of an international consortium that includes the likes of Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development, India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp as well as two subsidiaries of Russia's Rosneft.
The three offshore fields in the Sakhalin project are said to contain an estimated 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 485 million cubic feet of gas and would form the basis of the reserves earmarked for the proposed Sakhalin LNG plant.
The consortium has already invested close to $A1 billion on a five-year exploration drilling program with a further $A25 billion slated for the project over the next 30-40 years. ExxonMobil through its subsidiary Exxon Neftegas said it will spend about $A1.5 billion this year alone on the first stage of the development.
