Blaming Gazprom is only half of the story
By Derek Brower, Journalist
AND so another squabble ends with Gazprom the victor. Shell, once the kind of company that dictated terms to others, got a taste of the new medicine. The Kremlin is the alchemist, and its gas monopoly the distributor.
The deal signed in Moscow on Thursday over Sakhalin 2’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project puts Gazprom in control of it. The Kremlin will now have full oversight of the project’s costs. And sometime soon the gross collection of ecological charges against Sakhalin Energy, the consortium developing the LNG plant, will be either dropped altogether or converted into a light fine for the operator. Along with its medicine, Shell swallows a great deal of pride.