New Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev told business daily Vedomosti that he was against reviving production sharing agreements, which guarantee investors stable taxes for the life of the project.
He also said he would not ask for more checks of compliance with licensing agreements of embattled Russian oil major Yukos and may strip a license for eastern Siberia's giant Kovykta field from Surgutneftegaz.
"There must be equal rules for everybody," Trutnev said.
"This also applies to the Sakhalin-3 project. The PSA regime is very subjective and therefore creates chances for corruption."
Russia almost scrapped the PSA system last year, saying the regular tax regime was already stable enough.
Only three advanced PSA projects survived as a result, including Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2, led by ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell and the Kharyaga project in Siberia, led by France's Total.
Dozens of other less advanced PSA plans have been scrapped, including Sakhalin-3, which ExxonMobil originally agreed to develop under the PSA regime but which remains in the starting blocks after nearly a decade.
Last year, ExxonMobil said it was no longer seeking a PSA deal and was ready to tap Sakhalin-3 on a regular tax regime. But Russia said in January that it would put out Sakhalin-3 project to open tender.
ExxonMobil and the U.S. government have slammed Moscow's decision to tender the block, saying the move may damage cooperation between the two states in the energy sector.
The Sakhalin-3 Kirinsk block was led by ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil firm by market capitalization, and included No. 2 U.S. oil firm ChevronTexaco and Russian state oil firm Rosneft.
It is estimated to hold 450 million tons (3.3 billion barrels) of oil reserves.
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