Oil and gas concern Shell has reportedly informed the Russian authorities about its exit from the Sakhalin-2 project after re-registration of the operator company in Russia, the Russian service of Radio Liberty reports.
Shell became the only participant of "Sakhalin-2", which leaves the project after the nationalization of the assets of the company "Sakhalin Energy" and the transfer of the rights of the operator of the project to "Sakhalin Energy" LLC. The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant owned 27.5% of Sakhalin-2. Other project participants retained their shares: Gazprom (50% plus one share), as well as Japanese Mitsui (12.5%) and Mitsubishi (10%).
Shell's stake must be sold by the Russian government within four months of an independent assessment. The company valued its own share at 1.6 billion rubles, and also stated that Shell "reserves all its legal rights" as a shareholder of Sakhalin Energy, as reported by the Russian newspaper "Kommersant"
According to experts, this may mean that the company may file a lawsuit to recover the value of its share, where the Russian Federation, Gazprom or Sakhalin Energy LLC may act as defendants. Due to the loss of the contract with Sakhalin Energy, the Shell concern may lose 1 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year.
At the end of July, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree on the transfer to the state of the assets of the joint venture "Sakhalin Energy", the operator of the large international project "Sakhalin-2". The document states that the decision was made in connection with the "unfriendly and contrary to international law" actions of the USA and the states and organizations that joined them, aimed at imposing sanctions against the Russian Federation. The new operator - LLC "Sakhalin Energy" - is registered in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Oil production within another project, Sakhalin-1, has been suspended since May 15, after the project's operator, the American company ExxonMobil, announced a phased cessation of production from April 26. The operator company announced its withdrawal from the project after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.