Russia Sues Shell Units | OilPrice.com

Russia is suing eight of Shell’s facilities, according to court documents disclosed by Reuters on Friday.

Shell withdrew from its Russian operations after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Now, Russian officials and authorities are suing a number of units of the British supermajor in a lawsuit filed in a Moscow Arbitration Court and dated October 2, Reuters reports.

Court documents seen by the newswire did not provide further details beyond who is filing the suit.

The documents show that eight Shell units are being sued by Russia’s Prosecutor General, Gazprom Export, the Russian Energy Ministry, regional authorities on the Pacific island of Sakhalin and Sakhalin Energy.

Shell declined to comment to Reuters on the matter.

In Sakhalin, Shell was a minority shareholder in the Sakhalin LNG project before pulling out of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this year, the Russian government decided to sell Shell’s minority stake in the Sakhalin LNG project to state-controlled giant Gazprom for $1 billion, reversing an earlier decision to have LNG producer and exporter Novatek take the stake that Shell abandoned after the invasion of Ukraine. .

In 2022, a decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin stipulated that a newly established Russian state company would take over the rights and obligations of Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., the joint venture that manages the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project.

Shell and Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi were minority shareholders in Sakhalin Energy Investment Co, whose main shareholder was Gazprom.

Shell had 27.5% in the project, but had already announced it would withdraw from Sakhalin-2. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Shell said in early 2022 it would exit its partnerships with Gazprom and related entities, including its 27.5% stake in Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas facility, 50% stake in Salym Petroleum Development and Gydan. energy adventure.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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