French energy major TotalEnergies (TTE) has secured approval from the Russian government for the sale of its interest in the Arctic LNG 2 liquefied natural gas export facility on Russia's Gydan Peninsula, multiple media outlets reported on Wednesday, citing a presidential decree.
The order from President Vladimir Putin will let TotalEnergies transfer its 10% stake in the project to a company called NordLine LLC. Nordline is a unit of Novatek, a 60% shareholder in the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is valued at over $21 billion and was sanctioned by the US, Bloomberg reported, citing Interfax.
Terms of the transfer were not shared, the report added.
The French energy major had previously written down the value of its Arctic LNG 2 stake due to the war in Ukraine and maintained that it has earned no revenue from the project.
In late 2023, the US sanctioned the project as part of measures to limit Russia's LNG export capacity.
The facility began using shadow fleet vessels to ship the fuel the following year and gradually increased production, but it was still operating well below capacity. Deliveries have so far been going only to one port in southern China, the report added.
has reached out to TotalEnergies and Russia's Energy Ministry for a comment.
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