YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia - Russia on Wednesday extended by a month an environmental audit at a troubled multi-billion-dollar energy project in the country's Far East led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

The decision, announced by Russia's natural resources minister as he visited the Pacific island of Sakhalin to inspect the project, delayed any immediate threat to the venture.

"At the end of November, we will finish our audit of Sakhalin-2," Yuri Trutnev said.

The day before, on a visit to the oil town of Nefteyugansk in Western Siberia, Trutnev reiterated a warning that environmental violations at the US$22 billion Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project could lead to its license being revoked.

Analysts have suggested the Kremlin is seeking to secure better terms for state natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom to enter the project and reshape the deal, which allows Shell to wait until it is comfortably in the black before splitting profits with the state.

A handful of other Western companies that signed similar agreements in the 1990s giving them control of energy projects at a time when Russia lacked the money to develop them have also come under pressure as the Russian government seeks to reclaim a dominant state role in the strategic oil and gas sector.

On Tuesday, Trutnev said an Arctic oil field being developed by France's Total SA had "violations many times over," although it was in no danger, at least not immediately, of losing licenses to develop the Kharyaga field in the Nenets region.

President Vladimir Putin, speaking Friday in Finland, said he was optimistic his government would reach an agreement with Shell but said Russia was unwilling to agree to a doubling of its costs.

Royal Dutch Shell infuriated the Russian government when it said last year it would double the costs at the project it leads to nearly US$22 billion - the original so-called production sharing agreement allows the company and its partners to recoup all expenses before sharing any profits with the Russian state.

Regulators last month froze a key environmental permit at Sakhalin-2, and Trutnev on Wednesday lashed out at what he called "multiple violations of environmental legislation."

The Russian minister was meeting on the Pacific island with representatives of the Sakhalin-2 consortium, which also includes Japanese companies Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co., as well as with officials from the Russian environmental watchdog.

Trutnev said on Friday that he had received a letter from the head of the consortium last week assuring him that the violations, which include illegal logging, water pollution and soil erosion had been or would be addressed.

The company is due to present a final plan for rectifying the violations this week. Meanwhile, the head of Shell's Russian operations, Chris Finlayson, expressed confidence that work on the project would go ahead according to schedule, with the first LNG shipment due to leave the island in summer 2008.

Stepping up the pressure, Trutnev said that the violations breached at least 5 articles of the Russian Criminal Code and that case material would be forwarded to the Prosecutor General's office.

He added that the environmental watchdog had 4 months to assess damages caused by the environmental violations.