PRESS: Russia to prolong auction for Shell's Sakhalin-2 stake

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (PRIME) -- An auction for Shell's 27.49% in the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project will be prolonged, because Novatek has not yet bid, business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday citing sources.

"Novatek is not ready to make a commercial offer to buy Shell's interest in the Sakhalin-2 project so far. The Federal State Property Management Agency is taking bids for the stake purchase until December 30, but the terms of choice of the buyer can be postponed until the end of the first quarter of 2023," the newspaper reported.

According to the source, the reason was that the government had not assessed the environmental and other damage possibly made by Shell to the project, and no firm agreement of the key shareholder Gazprom was attained. Several sources said that Gazprom is not interested in its competitor Novatek entering the project.

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