The Foundation of Japan–Russia Energy Cooperation: The History of the Ups and Downs of the Sakhalin Project

• Main Authors: SUGIMOTO Tadashi, Tadashi SUGIMOTO
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA) 2013
• Subjects: Japan–USSR (Russia) economic cooperation; Zaikai project; SODECO; mutual and complementary relationship; the USSR’s first genuine offshore development project; Sakhalin
• Online Access: http://id.nii.ac.jp/1727/00000263/; https://erina.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=287; https://erina.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=287&item_no=1&attribute_id=22&file_no=1

The Japan–USSR collaborative Sakhalin continental shelf exploration and development project existed from the mid-1970s to the beginning of the 1990s, and was called the "Sakhalin Project". It was a project that became a forerunner for, as today, the waters around Sakhalin Island being divided into nine blocks and given the names Sakhalin I and Sakhalin II, etc. As regards this project—moved forward by SODECO which became the agent on the Japanese side—oil was extracted from Exploratory Well No. 1 in autumn 1977, and around 1980 there was expectation for the start of production. While the formulation of development and production plans had been moved forward regarding the subsequently discovered commercial amounts of natural gas, amid the changes in the environment this project company ended its role at the beginning of the 1990s, handing the project on to a successor company. This project had not only become the foundation for Japan–USSR (Russia) energy cooperation: there is no small number for the legacies left to both Japan and the USSR (Russia).