Mitsubishi and Mitsui have been approved to keep their holdings in Sakhalin-2 under the new operator
Moscow has approved Japan’s Mitsubishi application to continue its participation in the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project after its transfer to a new operator, according to a government order published on Wednesday.
The order signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says the government has approved Mitsubishi’s request to transfer a 10% stake in the former operator to an equal stake in Sakhalin Energy, a Russian company that has assumed ownership of the vast LNG project in the Far East of the country.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin approved a separate request by Japan’s Mitsui to transfer its 12.5% stake in the project to the new entity.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the reorganization of the Sakhalin-2 company, transferring ownership of its Bermuda-based operator to a new national company. Foreign shareholders were then told that they would have to reapply to maintain their stake in the project. The move came in response to sanctions from “hostile countries.”
Sakhalin-2, one of the world’s largest LNG projects with an annual output of 12 million tons, was launched in 2009 as a joint venture between Russia’s Gazprom, Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi, and Britain’s Shell. The company, located on the Russian island of Sakhalin in the Pacific Ocean, north of Japan, supplies LNG mainly to Asian markets.