Russian gas company Novatek has received Putin’s consent to transfer the money to Shell, the newspaper reported citing sources familiar with the matter.

Shell declined to comment. Novatek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Novatek said on Monday it had submitted an application to acquire a stake in Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakahlin-2 gas project.

Following Moscow’s decision to send troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Shell said it would quit Sakhalin-2, in which it held a stake worth 27.5% minus one share. In June, the company was transformed into a Russian entity via a presidential decree. Putin said he would require Shell and two Japanese trading companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi to apply to keep their stakes in the project if they wanted to.

Moscow invited firms interested in obtaining Shell’s stake – as well as Exxon Mobil’s abandoned share in the sister Sakhalin-1 project – to submit applications to the government.

Shell said in its 2022 annual report that it told the Russian authorities in September that it would not apply for shares available for sale under the process.