By Olesya Astakhova
MOSCOW, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Production of oil and naturalgas at the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin is expected todecline next year, the local government said in an emailedresponse to a Reuters query.
Sakhalin, which is also famous for producing seafood,derives most most of its oil and natural gas from two offshoreprojects - Sakhalin-1, led by ExxonMobil, andSakhalin-2, led by Russia's Gazprom.
Sakhalin-1 shareholders also include Russia's Rosneft, Japan's Sodeco and India's ONGC. Apart fromGazprom, Sakhalin-2 shareholders include Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi.
The government of Sakhalin said that oil and gas condensateoutput this year is expected to reach 17.4 million tonnes,equating to 348,000 barrels per day (bpd), with production ofnatural gas at 32.2 billion cubic metres (bcm).
For 2019, oil and gas condensate production is seendeclining by more than 11 percent to 15.4 million tonnes, withnatural gas output dropping to 29.3 bcm.
It didn't provide a production breakdown for the twoprojects or the reasons for the production slowdown.
Exxon Neftegas Limited, the Sakhalin-1 operator, said it"continues to maintain production levels consistent with itsoperatorship obligations under the Sakhalin-1 production-sharingagreement".
Both projects are working under the production-sharingagreements struck in the 1990s.
Sakhalin Energy, the Sakhalin-2 operator, did not reply to aReuters request for a comment.
Total Russian oil production is still seen rising to 553million tonnes (11.105 million bpd) this year, up from about 547million tonnes in 2017. It is expected to peak at 570 milliontonnes in 2021.
The monitoring committee of the Organization of thePetroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other large oilproducers, led by Russia, will convene this weekend in Algeriato discuss their oil production deal.
OPEC and a group of non-OPEC countries agreed in June toreturn to 100 percent compliance with oil output cuts that beganin January 2017.(Reporting by Olesya AstakhovaWriting by Vladimir SoldatkinEditing by David Goodman)
