Shell Salym Development, a subsidiary of the British oil and gas company Shell, has completed the withdrawal from its 50% interest in the Salym development project, which had been jointly developed with Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom. The complete withdrawal of Shell follows the approval by the Russian Government in late February 2023 of the takeover of Shell’s share by Gazprom Neft.
The Salym Petroleum Development project was formed in 1996 by the shareholders of Shell and the Russian oil company Evikhon, which was acquired by Gazprom Neft in the late 2000s. The design capacity of oil production at the project is 17 kt/day, and peak production reached 8.4 Mt/year. The total reserves of the project fields are estimated at 181 Mt and the accumulated investment in the project reached RUB171bn (US$2.3bn).
Shell first announced its intention to exit its joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities, including its 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin 2 LNG export project and its stake in the Salym Petroleum Development, in March 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.