Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 05 2023

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Shell exits Salym Petroleum

joint venture in West Siberia

RUSSIA SHELL agreed in December to cede its half-stake the Kremlin accused its foreign partners of vio-
in Western Siberian oil venture Salym Petroleum lating their shareholder obligations.
Shell has finally to its partner Gazprom Neft (GPN), the UK Salym Petroleum was Shell’s other major
withdrawn from its major announced last week. development in Russia. It manages several oil-
main oil venture in Shell already booked a $233mn impairment fields in the Khanty-Mansiysk region of Western
Russia. on its interest in Salym Petroleum last year, and Siberia, and is one of the oldest and most suc-
its directors resigned from the project last July. cessful foreign partnerships in the Russian oil
“On December 22, 2022, Shell signed transac- sector.
tion documents with GPN to sell its 50% interest An arbitration court in the Moscow region
in Salym Petroleum Development Limited Lia- satisfied a claim by a unit of Gazprom Neft to
bility Company,” the international oil company allow Shell to sell its 50% stake in the joint ven-
(IOC) revealed in its fourth-quarter results. “The ture, Russian media reported in late December.
Russian branch of Salym has purportedly been The text of the court ruling was not published.
transformed into a Russian LLC.” But according to Prime, the claimant, GPN-Sa-
Shell has not disclosed whether it will receive lym Projects, requested that Shell be allowed to
any money for the sale, which is subject to sell the interest to another unit of Gazprom Neft,
approvals from Russian authorities. GPN-Middle East Projects. The transfer would
Shell was among the first IOCs to announce include Salym Petroleum’s subsoil licences to
its withdrawal from Russia in response to Mos- oilfields.
cow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. The court suspended the right of Shell Salym
The company had held a 27.5% stake in the Gaz- Development, the Shell subsidiary that manages
prom-operated Sakhalin-2 LNG project in the the Anglo-Dutch major’s stake in Salym Petro-
Russian Far East. But the project was taken over leum, to continue holding on to the interest and
by a Russian state-owned entity in August, after to demand its buyout until 2024. ™

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