State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested revising the production sharing agreement within the framework of the Sakhalin-2 project, transferring the share of foreign investors in the project from unfriendly countries to the state or Gazprom.
“We are talking about the Sakhalin-2 PSA, where Japan is participating, England and the Netherlands are participating. On the one hand, they blame our country, on the other hand, they sit there quietly and receive big dividends to this day. Maybe we should analyze this situation. Better let the share of Gazprom, our state, or companies friendly towards Russia come, and these companies will leave,” he said during the plenary meeting of the State Duma, at which the report of the Accounts Chamber was heard.
The head of parliament asked the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, how he felt about this idea and whether the oversight body should react and make proposals to protect domestic interests.
Kudrin noted that, as a rule, sanctions are adopted by politicians and government agencies, while companies and the private sector suffer from them. He called for separating the measures taken by the state and the private sector. “After all, Russia will interact extensively with other countries, not only unfriendly, but with others that are ready to interact with us today. They should not have the feeling that there are political risks in making decisions on our companies,” Kudrin said. .
“Measures against foreign companies should be balanced and very measured. In some cases, I agree that such measures are required. I repeat, in this case, let’s analyze. We, as the Accounts Chamber, are ready to do this,” he added.
“We must study all this. We hope for the Accounts Chamber that it will take and express its point of view, in this case on the Sakhalin-2 PSA, because in this case we will have more funds coming to the budget of the Russian Federation, Sakhalin “, the Far East, and of course, the assets will return. They are silent now? Why are they silent? Because it is a super-profitable project. If Japan would take it and declare – since we went to sanctions – here (a share in Sakhalin-2”) we will return to you. And so it turns out: sanctions are imposed, and profits are received. England, the Netherlands. Shell announced that it was leaving Russia, slamming the door loudly, but they have a stake in Sakhalin-2. Take it then and leave, transfer everything to Gazprom, and “Gazprom” – the people’s property, or the Russian state – will be a direct asset,” Volodin developed the idea.
As part of Sakhalin-2, the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye fields of the Sakhalin sea shelf are being developed. Sakhalin Energy (Bermuda) is the project operator. Its shareholders are Gazprom (50% plus 1 share), Shell (27.5% minus 1 share), Japanese Mitsui (12.5%) and Mitsubishi (10%).
As reported, at the end of February, Shell, which owns a 27.5% stake in the project, announced its intention to withdraw from the asset and later withdrew its management and technical staff from there. In the report for the first quarter, the company recognized an impairment loss on this project in the amount of $1.614 billion. from the project, which produces about 4 million tons of oil per year.