Russia's A Cuddly Bear In The Energy War

Lisa Buckingham, the Financial Mail editor writes that the challenges that Shell is facing in the Sakhalin-2 project are great, but nothing new. Muddling through with hostile political regimes is day-to-day stuff for oil giants. The expropriation of assets is, historically, par for the course. Remember, for example, that BP had a goodly part of its business swiped by Iran.

As BP's chief executive, Lord Browne, remarked when discussing the difficulties of doing business in Russia, if not there then the alternative was violent, war-ravaged Africa. Looked at from this perspective, Russia appears eminently hospitable.
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Russia to Create Giant Company to Control Oil and Gas Production at Sea Shelf

Russian daily Kommersant reported on Monday, Dec. 11, that the meeting of the Russian Security Council chaired by President Putin on Saturday developed a new strategy to give the government control of oil and gas extraction on the Russian sea shelf. The paper reported that the Russian authorities may combine state-controlled giants Gazprom, Rosneft and Zarubezhneft into a single government monopoly that would take over the shelf production.
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Gazprom Says Shell Makes Offer on Russia's Sakhalin-2

Gazprom said Royal Dutch Shell Plc made new proposals for the Russian company to join its $22 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas venture, as President Vladimir Putin expands his control of the world's biggest energy industry.

Reuters earlier reported that Shell agreed to cede state-run Gazprom a majority stake in Sakhalin-2. Moscow-based Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov and Shell Russia Vice President Maxim Shoob declined to confirm or deny the Reuters report, which cited unidentified industry people.
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Royal Dutch Shell’s decision to hand over control of the $22 billion energy project in Sakhalin to Russia’s state monopoly Gazprom is a victory for Russia’s new hardline policy on energy. It is also a warning to Western business that investment in Putin’s Russia still carries real risks, writes Michael Binyon of The Times.

Putin Hints at a Shtokman Reversal

President Vladimir Putin and two senior state officials reopened the possibility of foreign energy majors taking part in the Shtokman gas project, signaling that Gazprom might soon reverse its decision to bar them from developing the giant Arctic field, reports The Moscow Times.

Gazprom's announcement in early October that it had rejected all five foreign bidders for Shtokman prompted widespread shock and skepticism in the global oil and gas industry. Many doubted Gazprom was capable of developing the huge gas field, its first offshore, on its own.

In separate statements, Putin and Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko reiterated Gazprom's argument that the equity swaps offered by the five short-listed companies -- U.S. oil majors ConocoPhillips and Chevron, France's Total, and Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro -- were inadequate.

Putin's recent comments prompted speculation that the selection of foreign partners for Shtokman could, after all, have been linked to negotiations with the United States on Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization. Spokespeople for the Kremlin have previously denied the existence of a direct link between the two issues.
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