Russian regulators will begin inspections of the ExxonMobil-lead Sakhalin I project and Total’s Kharyaga field this month in a continuation of a program begun last year after complaints from environmentalists.

Oil company nemesis, Oleg Mitvol, of the Federal Oversight Service for Natural Resources will begin looking anew at Total’s shared-production Kharyaga field on March 12, according to Russian new service RIA Novosti.

“We will carry out the inspection at the request of the Federal Agency for the Management of Mineral Resources, which has raised some issues, including on the commissioning of wells," Mitvol was quoted as saying.

He said Total “failed to observe the gas-drive recovery process, burning up 60 percentof natural gas produced in 2005,” according to the news agency report. Total also stands accused of not meeting production and technology-transfer targets.

Total owns a 50 percent stake in Kharyaga, Norway's Hydro 40 percent and Russian Nenets Oil 10 percent.

Meanwhile, “a document check” at Sakhalin I starts another inspection on March 28. Exxon Neftegas Ltd. is accused of not spending or developing enough.

OilGas24.com’s affiliate publication, Scandinavian Oil-Gas Magazine, has reported extensively on oil company entaglements in Russia, including Shell at Sakhalin II, another Far East Siberian project.