MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on reports that Novatek had allegedly received the consent of President Vladimir Putin to transfer the entire payment to Shell for its stake in the Sakhalin 2 project.

As Kommersant business daily reported, Shell would be able to withdraw the money from Russia, and Novatek would receive the stake in the project.

"We do not comment on this topic; we never comment on business correspondence," Peskov replied, responding to a request from TASS to comment on such information.

On Monday, Russian independent gas producer Novatek announced that it had applied to participate in the Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project. The company is to participate in the selection of a buyer of a stake in Sakhalinskaya Energiya, the project’s operator.

Shell declined to comment on the matter and TASS sent a request to Novatek.

Earlier, Kommersant reported citing its sources, about Putin’s consent to allow Shell to receive 94.8 billion rubles ($1.2 bln) for the Sakhalin-2 project and withdraw this money from Russia.

The Russian authorities were going to audit Sakhalin 2, with plans to reduce the amount of the payment by the amount of damage. However, Novatek, according to the publication, believes that any deficiencies can be covered by the dividends Shell was due to receive from the project for 2021 but did not receive in full. Shell estimated the total outstanding dividend from the Sakhalin 2 project at $1 billion.

As Kommersant reported, Novatek proposed to allow the funds to be transferred to Shell's foreign account, and not to a special account, as stipulated by the presidential decree. According to the business daily, Putin had no objection to this proposal.

About situation around Sakhalin 2 project

On June 30, 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree under which a Russian stock company would replace Sakhalin Energy as the operator of the Sakhalin-2 project. On August 2, 2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree establishing Sakhalinskaya Energiya, the new operator of Sakhalin 2. The company was registered on August 5.

Japanese companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi agreed to keep their stake in Sakhalin-2, but Shell, which has a 27.5% stake in the project, said it would not have any stake in the new company. Under the decree, the further sale of any stake in the Sakhalinskaya Energiya can only be made to a Russian legal entity. Novatek has expressed interest in the project.

Now Shell's stake is to be valued and sold, and the money from the sale is to be transferred to a special account. The Russian government is also conducting financial, environmental, technological and other audits of the activities of foreign participants in the project in terms of how they are adhering to the PSA. As a result of the audit, there may be certain fines, the payment of which will be made from this special account.