By Sylvia Pfeifer, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:00am BST 08/04/2007
Royal Dutch Shell could lose management control of Sakhalin Energy, the Russian company which runs the giant Sakhalin project in eastern Siberia.
The loss would be a further blow to the Anglo-Dutch oil group and comes after Shell was forced to cede majority ownership of the company to Gazprom, the state-owned gas monopoly.
Until now, a Shell appointee – currently Ian Craig – has led the Sakhalin Energy consortium. Until last year it was made up of Shell and its Japanese partners, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, but under an initial agreement signed last December, Shell sold half its share plus half the stakes owned by the Japanese to Gazprom. It is understood that as part of the agreement, both Gazprom and Shell will now appoint executive directors. While there is expected to be a balance in the appointments – there are six directors – a Gazprom appointee could end up running the company. A final agreement is expected to be signed by the end of this year.