Official: No bids for foreigners’ stakes in Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2

MOSCOW, Mar 21 (PRIME) -- No one has bid for the acquisition of foreign companies’ stakes in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 oil and gas projects so far, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Tuesday.

“We have no such bids right now,” he said.

Novak said that the government was to value the financial damage on the projects from the foreigners’ quitting them very soon.

The shareholders of Sakhalin-1 included Exxon Neftegas Limited, a subsidiary of U.S. company ExxonMobil, with a 30% stake, Russian oil major Rosneft with 20%, Japan’s Sodeco with 30%, and India’s ONGC with 20%. Exxon Neftegas Limited decided to leave the project in March 2022.

The shareholders of a previous operator of the Sakhalin-2 project comprised gas giant Gazprom with a 50% plus one share stake, British-Dutch hydrocarbon giant Shell with a stake of 27.5% minus one share, and Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi with the stakes of 12.5% and 10%, respectively. In August 2022, the Russian government established a new, local operator of the project, and all foreign companies were allowed to keep their stakes in the new operator, but Shell decided to withdraw.

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