Friday, December 22, 2006. Issue 3567. Page 1.
By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer
Shell and its Japanese partners agreed on Thursday to sell a controlling stake in Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom for $7.45 billion, ending an era in which foreign energy companies were able to pursue huge projects without Russian partners.
The deal marks a big blow to Shell and is a powerful reaffirmation of the way business now takes place in Russia. According to the rules of the game, all major natural resource deals must now include a domestic firm with close ties to the Kremlin.