The Russian Government has allowed the Russian gas producer Novatek to buy the 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project that was previously owned by the British oil and gas company Shell for RUB94.8bn (US$1.16bn). The Sakhalin-2 LNG liquefaction project, located in the far eastern oblast of Sakhalin, comprises two LNG trains with a total capacity of 10.8 Mt/year that were commissioned in 2009.
The project used to be owned by Gazprom (50% plus one share), Shell (27.5% minus one share), Mitsui (12.5%) and Mitsubishi (10%). Shell expressed its intention of withdrawing from the project in March 2022 after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In summer 2022, Russia decided to take full control of the project and established a new entity, Sakhalin Energy, as the new operator of the project. Russia had announced that if the foreign companies refused to join the new entity, their stake in the project would be sold to a Russian company.
Gazprom, Mitsui and Mitsubishi decided to retain their stakes in the Sakhalin-2 project (a decision that was approved by Russia in August 2022), contrary to Shell, which in addition to the Sakhalin-2 project also withdrew from its 50% interest in the Salym oil development project in Russia (in March 2023).
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