20 June 2007
When Gazprom took over the Sakhalin II project, it was believed that Moscow would call the shots in the project and that Shell would merely be a minority partner. Those in Sakhalin and well connected with the project basically know that other than an urgency to fill most vacancies with Russian citizens, very little has changed. That is, other than the fact that the environmental brigade easing its pressure on the consortium. The fact remains that Sakhalin Energy is still synonymous with Shell and the pressure is still on the Anglo-Dutch company to fulfill its LNG delivery obligations.