MOSCOW  Just a few years after compelling foreign oil companies to renegotiate their contracts in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin has invited executives from some of the largest such companies to discuss new work on Siberian natural gas fields.

Executives from Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total and other companies met with Mr. Putin in Salekhard, a city in the Yamal-Nenets district that is rich in large deposits of untapped natural gas.

Mr. Putin said he called the meeting to discuss strategies to develop the Yamal Peninsula, a treeless realm jutting into the Arctic Ocean that is so dense in gas fields it is sometimes called the Saudi Arabia of gas.

Mr. Putin did not make any specific offers to the gathered energy executives but said instead that he wanted to open a dialogue about the region’s future.