Gazprom and Royal Dutch/Shell discuss exchanging Russian assets

The Russian gas monopolist Gazprom and Royal Dutch/Shell are negotiating exchanging some of their Russian assets, Gazprom's Deputy CEO Alexander Ryazanov reported at the 2nd Russian-US energy summit in St. Petersburg today. However, he gave no details.

One accepts the possibility that this is about the Russian holding's participation in the Sakhalin-2 project. Gazprom has long been interested in it but the companies could not agree on the mechanism and principles of Gazprom's participation in the project. The implementation of Sakhalin-2 is connected with receiving $10bn in direct investments. Shell is a shareholder in Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin-2 project. Additionally, the company participates in another Russian project, which is an operator of a number of deposits in Western Siberia.

Analysts believe that Shell could contribute to Gazprom's entering the Sakhalin project in exchange for an opportunity of developing some fields in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area with 735 billion cubic meters in estimated gas reserves.

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