Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura met with executives of Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co (SODECO), a consortium of Japanese firms, on Monday and urged them to consider joining the Russian entity, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last month issued a decree to establish a new operator for the formerly Exxon Mobil-led project, authorising the Kremlin to decide whether foreign shareholders could retain stakes in Sakhalin-1. Exxon fully exited Russia after Moscow "unilaterally terminated" its interests in the project.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)