Shell gets $165 million dividend payment from Russian LNG project

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) - Shell received a $165 million dividend payment in April from the giant Russian Sakhalin-2 oil and gas joint venture in which it holds a 27.5% stake, it said on Thursday.

Shell was able to receive the dividend, which relates to the joint venture's 2021 profit, because the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company is a Bermuda-listed entity, a company spokesman said.

Shell wrote off the value of its Russian assets at $3.9 billion, including $1.6 billion for Sakhalin-2, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February.

It has also made clear it intends to quit Sakhalin-2 and has been in talks with potential buyers.

President Vladimir Putin earlier this month signed a decree that seizes full control of the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia's far east, a major supplier of liquefied natural gas to Asia in which Shell and two Japanese trading companies - Mitsui and Mitsubishi - hold just under 50%.

Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday it was "highly unlikely" Shell would seek to join a new entity.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Jason Neely and David Holmes)