Background

Shell is a British-Dutch oil and gas company focused on hydrocarbon production, processing and marketing in over 70 countries worldwide.

On June 18, 2015, Gazprom and Shell signed an Agreement of Strategic Cooperation. The document provides for the partnership between the two companies across all segments of the gas industry, from upstream to downstream, including in the form of a potential asset swap.

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant was brought into operation as part of the Sakhalin II project. It is the only LNG plant in Russia. The Sakhalin II operator is Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Gazprom – 50 per cent plus one share, Shell – 27.5 per cent minus one share, Mitsui – 12.5 per cent, and Mitsubishi – 10 per cent). On June 18, 2015, Gazprom and Shell signed a Memorandum to construct the third production train of the LNG plant.

On September 4, 2015, Gazprom, BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV, and Shell inked the Shareholders Agreement to construct the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline system with the annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.