Russia’s energy giant Gazprom asked the Russian government in 2016 to take steps aimed at partial liberalization of natural gas market, local media reported Friday.

Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller sent a letter to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in August 2016, talking about the company’s plans to start new “export-oriented” projects in cooperation with Shell, the Russian Kommersant newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, Miller said in the letter that “the foreign partner” proposed to link the implementation of joint projects, such as the Baltic liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and the third stage of the LNG plant in Sakhalin, to the global hydrocarbon prices, but not to the regulated price, as the country’s legislation prescribed, according to Sputnik News.

The proposal to partially deregulate the gas prices was reportedly made to share both the risks and the revenues that could emerge as a result of changes in global oil prices.