Shell could receive nearly £1bn from the sale of a stake in a Russian gas project it exited after the invasion of Ukraine last year.
The Kremlin has reportedly issued an order for the sale of Shell’s former 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 project to Russian energy firm Novatek for 94.8bn roubles (£923m).
The sale comes a week after Russian daily newspaper Kommersant reported that President Vladimir Putin had given permission for the sum to be paid directly to Shell.
The oil giant was one of many western energy companies which promised to leave Russia’s energy industry last year, including exiting its 27.5% stake in the giant Sakhalin-2 gas venture in the far east of the country.
Shell’s decision to exit Russia forced the company to write down the value of its assets by $4.2bn (£3.4bn) at the end of last year, including a $1.6bn impairment on its Sakhalin-2 stake.
The Kremlin’s shock decision to nationalise the venture last summer raised questions about whether Shell would receive payment for its share of the project.
Shell declined to comment on the reported sale, which has taken place without the company’s involvement or knowledge.
The Guardian understands that Shell has been kept in the dark since ruling out any involvement in Sakhalin-2 after it was transformed into a new Russian company by presidential decree, months after Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine.
The Kremlin gave Shell and its partners – Japanese trading companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi – one month to say whether they would apply to maintain their stakes in the new Russian venture, which it formed last June. In September, Shell ruled out any involvement in the company and, according to its annual report, told Russia that it “objected” to the transfer of the project to the new Russian company and reserved all rights to the original venture.
The decision raised the risk that Shell would exit the project without any compensation, in a blow to shareholders. Under the terms of the original venture, Shell was entitled to take delivery of gas cargoes from the project. However, it has since ruled out trading Russian hydrocarbons.
The gas project, in which the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom is a shareholder, produced roughly 11.6m tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2020, of which 3.2m tonnes flowed to Shell, representing about 10% of the company’s global production of LNG.
Shell’s dilemma underscores the difficulty that big energy companies have faced in severing ties with Russia to avoid accusations that they are helping to fund the country’s attacks on Ukraine.
BP promised in February last year to exit the Russian energy industry but continues to hold a 19.75% stake, worth about $14bn, in the oil company Rosneft. The company has said it still intends to exit the stake in Rosneft and has not received any dividends from the company since its decision.
