Japan's Trade Minister Akira Amari said he was aware that ExxonMobil had signed the deal with Chinese state oil company China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on natural gas supplies.
However, Amari said he thought the preliminary agreement did not necessarily mean that ExxonMobil would abandon talks with other natural gas users, and he has not ruled out the possibility of gas imports from Sakhalin 1.
"Naturally,
