(Adds Van der Veer interview)

By Guy Faulconbridge and Mikhail Yenukov

MOSCOW, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom <GAZP.MM> clinched a $7.45 billion deal on Thursday to buy half of the Sakhalin-2 project from Shell <RDSa.L> and its partners, sealing the Kremlin's grip on the huge Russian energy sector.

Gazprom will pay cash to Royal Dutch Shell and its Japanese partners Mitsui <8031.T> and Mitsubishi <8058.T>, becoming the leader of the $22 billion project, the firms said in a joint statement after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

"We as the main shareholder of the project will do everything to launch it as soon as possible," Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller told reporters after meeting Putin.

Shell will continue to contribute to management and act as technical adviser on Sakhalin-2, which will honour its existing contracts to sell liquefied natural gas to Japan, South Korea and the United States according to the agreed schedule, with the first shipment due in the summer of 2008.

The deal means Shell and Japanese partners will each dilute their stakes by half, leaving them with 27.5 percent, 12.5 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

But the deal, which follows months of pressure from Russian officials who threatened to delay the project, raises questions about Shell's reserves, since the British-Dutch oil major has one of the worst reserve replacement records among its peers.

"Of course there's a short term impact on the reserves, the reserve bookings themselves, but when I look at the future of the company, we have really good opportunities," Shell's chief executive, Jeroen Van der Veer, told Reuters.

Shell spokesman Andre Romeijn told ANP-Reuters the deal could also affect future production outlook.

Neill Morton, oil analyst at Man Securities, said he expected the deal to cut Shell's reserves by around 3.7 percent.

One analyst had said taking cash for Sakhalin-2, the biggest liquefied natural gas project in the world and the biggest single foreign investment in Russia, would be the "worst case scenario."

LONGER RANGE QUESTION

But Van der Veer disagreed, saying the assets swap would have been more complex. Gazprom would pay Shell $4.1 billion on closing the deal in weeks or months, but would not cover any of the $12 billion cost, registered as of the end of third quarter.

"In fact, we constructed it as if Gazprom would have been a shareholder already," he told Reuters.

Shell and its partners will be compensated for the loss of half the future cashflows to which the partners had been entitled under the Production Sharing Agreement, analysts said.

However, investors had expected this and welcomed closure to the issue.

Shell's London-listed A shares jumped almost 1 percent after the deal was announced, before falling back again to close down 0.06 percent at 1790 pence, outperforming a 0.42 percent fall in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index <.SXEP>.

"It's better than some of the speculation we saw a week ago. The market had already anticipated an event of this magnitude so it's unlikely to have a big impact on the share price," said Richard Griffith at Evo Securities.

"The longer range question is where does this leave Shell in terms of reserve replacement ratios and production targets. Those are the things that will be a concern for people come February (when Shell reports its 2006 results)."

At Man Securities, Morton said: "It's slightly better than expected for Shell. Firstly, they're keeping 27.5 percent rather than the rumoured 25 percent. They seem to be receiving cash upfront which is positive and the purchase price is a little better than expected."

The agreement was struck after three meetings between Miller and Van der Veer, whose predecessor resigned over the firm's reserves record.

Gazprom had originally offered Shell a share of its Zapolyarnoye field as a swap for 25 percent of Sakhalin-2, based on Russia's Pacific energy hub, Sakhalin Island.

But last year Shell announced the project's costs had doubled, prompting Gazprom to reopen negotiations and demand a much bigger share.

The cost hike also angered the Kremlin, since under the project's production sharing agreement the operator can recoup costs before sharing any profit with the state. Higher costs mean Russia waiting longer for less profit.

Putin, who has been accused of using Gazprom as Russia's top economic and diplomatic weapon, said he was happy with the deal: "Russia is satisfied by a serious and business-like approach of the partners to have those risks on themselves," he said.

Shell, which has said Russia's pressure could delay LNG shipments and undermine global energy security, said on Thursday the group had reached a deal over cost overruns, which are now expected to be approved by Russia's supervisory PSA board.

It was not clear whether Russia would fully accept the new $22 billion budget or ask the group to cut costs.

Van der Veer also denied Gazprom could offer cooperation in its other projects as part of the Sakhalin-2 deal: "It is a pure cash deal," he said.

He also said he hoped to clear soon all ecological problems at Sakhalin-2 via a dialogue with Russia's resources ministry.

(Additional reporting by Tom Bergin in London)

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