The Moscow Times is reporting that executives from oil major ExxonMobil are beginning to complain about numerous delays caused by the Russian government over the development of Sakhalin-1.  In the past we’ve speculated about who the Kremlin would steal from next in the Sakhalin projects (they have already gutted Royal Dutch Shell, and managed to get them to say “thank you” afterward), and it looks like a good time to be a politically connected state-owned company.

The operator of the Sakhalin-1 project has clashed with the government over the terms of its production-sharing agreement, which exempts the venture from restrictions on gas exports. Exxon Neftegas Limited has faced pressure from Gazprom to scrap plans to export the prospective gas to China in favor of selling it to the state-controlled company.