The company may enter Gazprom's Sakhalin-3 project

The Anglo-Dutch Shell has revealed that, as part of the agreements with Gazprom on the exchange of assets, it wants to enter the Sakhalin-3 production project. It should become a resource base for the new stage of the LNG plant of another project of the partners - Sakhalin-2. What the Russian monopoly will receive in return is not yet clear, but Shell has already agreed to enter Gazprom’s new pipeline project Nord Stream-2. Kommersant's sources and experts believe that the Russian company may be interested in Shell's LNG projects.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Royal Dutch Shell Ben Van Beurden said that the company, as part of an asset exchange with Gazprom, is counting on a share in the Sakhalin-3 project. What, in turn, Gazprom will receive is currently being discussed, he said, without specifying the options. Shell declined to comment further. The exchange is expected within the framework of the strategic cooperation agreement signed at SPIEF 2015. At the end of June, the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, said that the company would form a list of assets for exchange by the end of the year, and the transaction itself could be closed no earlier than in a year. Kommersant's sources explain that we are talking about Shell's global LNG projects.

Sakhalin-3 includes the development of four shelf blocks in the Sea of Okhotsk - Kirinsky, Veninsky, Ayashsky and East Odoptinsky. The Kirinskoye, Yuzhno-Kirinskoye and Mynginskoye fields have been discovered in the Kirinskoye block, two production wells are operating there, and five more are planned to be drilled in 2015. By 2018, it is planned to produce about 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas (gas reserves of Yuzhno-Kirinskoye along C1+C2 are 636.6 billion cubic meters, Kirinskoye along C1 are 162.5 billion cubic meters). The first exploration wells in the Ayashsky and Vostochno-Odoptinsky areas are planned for 2017-2018.

Over the past two months, Shell has already entered into two large Gazprom projects. On June 18, the companies signed a memorandum to expand by at least one more stage the only LNG plant in Russia, Sakhalin-2, its capacity will increase from 10 million to 15 million tons. The investment decision on the construction of the third line is expected to be made in the second half of 2017, the possible commissioning date is 2021. It is assumed that Sakhalin-3 will be the resource base for the project. Also, Gazprom and Shell, together with E.ON, OMV and Wintershall, are going to build two strings of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea.

The head of Small Letters, Vitaly Kryukov, believes that Sakhalin-3 is of interest to Shell due to its proximity to Asian markets, and the entry of a partner will allow Gazprom to gain access to additional financing, technology, sales and share risks. In exchange, the expert believes, Gazprom will most likely receive a share in one of Shell’s LNG projects. The Anglo-Dutch company recently closed its $70 billion purchase of the British BG Group (which owns a large portfolio of LNG production and distribution assets). At the same time, Mr. Kryukov believes, the amount of the transaction cannot be calculated: hydrocarbon reserves at Sakhalin-3 have not been fully established and we will simply be talking about commensurate assets.

Olga Mordyushenko

Shell will top up the Sea of ​​Okhotsk – Kommersant Newspaper No. 138 (5648) dated 08/04/2015

Shell will top up the Sea of Okhotsk – Kommersant Newspaper No. 138 (5648) dated 08/04/2015