Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) is moving two $1 billion drilling rigs from the challenging Shtokman project in the Barents Sea to its Sakhalin-3 project in the Far East, four people familiar with the matter said.

The move comes amid Russia 's ambition to diversify its energy exports away from Europe towards fast-growing Asian-Pacific economies.

State-controlled Gazprom--operator of the Shtokman project with France 's Total SA (TOT) and Norway 's Statoil (STO) as minority shareholders--last year postponed the Arctic field for three years to 2016 and plans to start drilling at Sakhalin-3's Kirinsky block off Russia 's Pacific Coast next year.

The two drilling rigs, which were ordered at a cost of around $1 billion each before the consortium decided to delay the Shtokman project, will start drilling at Sakhalin-3's Kirinsky block in May next year, the people said.

"The decision has already been taken. I'm more than sure this will happen," one of the people said.

Gazprom declined to comment.

The company is in talks with China about a long-term gas supply deal and hopes to reach a final agreement in July next year, Gazprom's deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev told Dow Jones Newswires.

Under that deal, China will buy 30 billion cubic meters of Siberian gas a year, but Russia also plans at later stages to export gas from Sakhalin to China via a new pipeline, Medvedev said.

Gazprom plans to start production from the Kirinsky block in 2014. Reserves at the Sakhalin-3 project are estimated at 1.4 trillion cubic meters, of which 1 trillion are in the Kirinsky block.

"Gazprom's focus on Sakhalin-3 and the whole push for gas into Asia to diversify away from Europe is probably underpinning the decision to move the rigs," said Bernstein's analyst Oswald Clint.

The bottom of the rigs are build at a shipyard in the Russian city of Vyborg on the Baltic Sea , while the topside will be installed in South Korea .

Before they are moved to the Kirinsky block in May, the rigs will lie at Sakhalin 's deepwater nonfreezing port of Kholmsk .

Shtokman's natural gas was originally destined for export markets in Europe and the U.S. But its future has been clouded by falling demand for Russian gas in Europe , which is now awash with imports of liquefied natural gas from Qatar .

Total's Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie last month raised the prospect of further delays at Shtokman, saying that a decision to make a final investment decision on the project by March next year may slip.

One of the world's costliest energy projects, its first phase alone carries a price tag of $15 billion. Pipeline gas is expected to start flowing from the field in Arctic waters in 2016, three years later than originally planned.

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