MOSCOW, December 2 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service announced on Tuesday that an investigation has been launched of Gazprom which had refused to give Rosneft access to the trans-Sakhalin pipeline.

Rosneft requested access to the Sakhalin-2 pipeline to reduce spending on the LNG project which it is implementing jointly with US ExxonMobil. Gazprom rejected it, saying that it planned to expand its own LNG plant, so far Russia’s only, within the Sakhalin-2 project. Rosneft filed a lawsuit to demand that project operator Sakhalin Energy allow access to the pipeline.

The antimonopoly regulator has asked Sakhalin Energy to provide information about its obligations (by month) under the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye production sharing agreements in 2012-2014 and projected values until 2018, as well as data on the monthly production and supply of natural gas to the domestic market and for export.

Sakhalin-2 is an oil and gas project that includes the Piltun-Astokhskoye oilfield and the Lunskoye natural gas field off Sakhalin Island in the Okhotsk Sea, and associated infrastructure onshore. The project is managed and operated by Sakhalin Energy, in which Gazprom owns 50 percent plus one share.