Foreign oil and gas giants suffer losses after abandoning projects in Russia.
The withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia is causing the collapse of production, supply chains, and trade relations. However, the whole story is a double-edged sword. Western companies also have to say goodbye to some of their revenues.
British Petroleum lost the most when it lost its joint venture investment in Kharampurneftegaz, where it held half the shares. The British company also had one-fifth of each of the assets in Rosneft and Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha. So far, British Petroleum has not succeeded in getting government commission approval to sell its stake in Rosneft.
In second place is TotalEnergies, whose losses have only widened through 2022 after it pulled out of the Arctic LNG 2 project. However, the company refused to part with its main equity investment in Novatek. The French have renamed themselves Top Lubricants and are preparing to unfreeze oil production under the Lemarc brand.
Wintershall Dea has left our country, although it clung to its joint ventures with Gazprom—Severneftegazprom, Achimgaz, and Severniye Potoki—for a very long time. Half of the company's production came from Russia.
Shell's assets in Salym Petroleum went to Gazprom. The Russian company even ensured that Shell did not have the right to buy its shares back. As for Sakhalin-2, only Novatek can claim shares in the British company as required by the Russian government.
ExxonMobil is the only company whose losses have not increased over the past year. However, the Americans have yet to pay ₽15.5 billion in tax arrears on Sakhalin-1. The Russian government is still likely to make sure that the foreign firm withdraws from the project on as unfavorable terms as possible.
Norwegian Equinor has left the Russian market relatively quietly, transferring its stakes in JVs Angara Oil and SevKomNefteGas to its partners Rosneft and Zarubezhneft.