Category: Russia

Russia will remain committed to developing its market economy as the state offers billions of dollars of aid to help the country’s biggest companies weather sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met with business leaders to discuss state aid to cope with the strain as Russia’s economic slowdown is exacerbated by the sanctions, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said today at an investment forum in the Black Sea city of Sochi, site of the Winter Olympics. The government is trying to revive its $2 trillion economy, growing at its slowest since a contraction in 2009 as U.S. and European Union sanctions compound cooling consumption and falling oil prices. Concerns that the arrest of billionaire Vladimir Evtushenkov, the richest Russian to face criminal charges since Mikhail Khodorkovsky a decade ago, signal an attack on private business have intensified outflows. The ruble weakened to a record against […]

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Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) said the U.S. government is giving the company more time to shut its Russian Arctic well beyond the deadline for sanctions aimed at halting the $700 million project. Exxon asked Washington for an extension to allow it to continue performing shut-down work on the Universitetskaya-1 (University-1) well in Russia ’s Kara Sea to make sure the well was safe before it’s temporarily abandoned. The Irving, Texas-based company already had ceased drilling the offshore well after U.S. sanctions set a Sept. 26 deadline for ending the work. “The U.S. Treasury Department, recognizing the complexity of the University-1 well and the sensitive Kara Sea arctic environment, has granted a license to Exxon Mobil and other U.S. contractors and persons involved to enable the safe and responsible winding down of operations related to this exploration well,” Exxon said in a statement today. The most-recent round of sanctions intended […]

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) — Russia is looking to develop energy in hard-to-reach areas as legacy production falls from its peak, the U.S. Energy Information Administration found. EIA said Russia typically depends on oil and gas fields in West Siberia. Production there has fallen from peak production levels in the 1980s and companies like Rosneft and Gazprom Neft are looking at new prospects. Last year, Russia was the largest producer of crude oil and condensate and the second-largest producer of natural gas. Oil production in 2013 increased 1.3 percent and gas by 2.1 percent. "However, new technologies, growing Asian markets, and Western sanctions have the potential to shift the regional balance of Russian oil and natural gas production in the long term," EIA said. Last week, Russian oil company Gazprom Neft said it reached a milestone with the production of its 1 millionth barrel of oil from the arctic […]

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MOSCOW, Sept. 19 (UPI) — Though China is becoming an important business partner, the European market is the prime destination for Russian gas, the CEO of Gazprom said Friday. Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller said Russian gas would account for 64 percent of European imports this year, up 17 percent from four years ago. "The European market is No. 1 for us, and we are Europe’s No. 1 gas supplier," he said. Gazprom officials have expressed interest in moving deeper into a growing Asian economy in an effort to offset a stagnant European Union. Construction started this month on the 2,500-mile Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to China. A contract between Russian natural gas company Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. is for 30 years and calls for 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year. Russia’s role in the European energy sector […]

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MOSCOW, Sept. 19 (UPI) — Last week, the European Union enforced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian energy efforts in shale, arctic oil and deep waters. The U.S. and European governments already have imposed punitive sanctions on Russian energy companies Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and others in response to the crisis in Ukraine. Herman Gref, the director of Russian bank Sberbank, told Rossiya-24 television the sanctions, which extend into the banking realm, were taking their toll . Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this month the government had a responsibility to support companies like Rosneft , controlled in part by the Kremlin. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said sanctions "have negatively affected business confidence in Russia."

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Cold world: sanctions against Russia have raised questions on the future of expensive projects in the Kara Sea north of Siberia Cold world: sanctions against Russia have raised questions on the future of expensive projects in the Kara Sea north of Siberia ExxonMobil , the US oil company, is winding down its drilling campaign in the Russian Arctic , making it the biggest corporate casualty of sanctions announced by the US and EU this month, by putting its $700m project on indefinite hold. The company said on Friday that the US Treasury had granted it a short term licence “to enable the safe and responsible winding down of operations”, but said there would be no further extensions. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas It added that it would be bringing to an end all activities associated with the project, a joint venture with Russia’s Rosneft , “as […]

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Russia was the world’s largest producer of crude oil (including lease condensate) and the world’s second-largest producer of dry natural gas in 2013. In 2013, production of crude oil and lease condensate grew by 1.3%, and production of dry natural gas grew by 2.1%. Most of Russia’s crude oil and natural gas production occurs in West Siberia, a part of central Russia that stretches from the northern border of Kazakhstan to the Arctic Ocean. However, new technologies, growing Asian markets, and Western sanctions have the potential to shift the regional balance of Russian oil and natural gas production in the long term. In 2013, production of oil and natural gas in West Siberia totaled 6.2 million barrels per day of crude oil and 21.1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas, respectively, down from peak production levels in the 1980s. Russian energy companies Rosneft and Gazprom Neft have increased […]

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SOCHI, Russia—Western oil companies have pledged their readiness to continue working in Russia despite Western sanctions, which have already put a brand new project into question. Speaking at an investment conference in Russia’s southern port of Sochi, Olivier Lazare, the president of Shell Russia, said the company’s strategy in Russia hasn’t changed because of the sanctions. "But of course we have to comply with the sanctions," he said, adding that the company is seeking clarification on what the sanctions mean for its business in Russia. General director of Total E&P Russie, Jacques de Boisseson, also said the company is committed to work in Russia. "We have continued to work in spite of sanctions, this is about consistency, about long-term work, about trust with our partners," he said. "Yes, we are used to work with sanctions. No, we don’t like to do that." Western countries have imposed sanctions against Moscow […]

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Few will invest in a country that uses state power so arbitrarily It is hard to imagine a worse moment for the Kremlin’s inner circle to launch an attempt to strong arm one of Russia’s wealthiest men out of a multibillion-dollar asset. For Tuesday’s house arrest of Vladimir Yevtushenkov , number 15 on the country’s rich list, on money-laundering charges, looks to be exactly that. If it is ever to achieve its ambition of catching up with more advanced economies, Russia urgently needs investment – both foreign and domestic – in new capacity and enhanced productivity to restart stalled growth. Yet even before it launched its military adventures in Ukraine , Russia’s rich preferred investing their profits in foreign assets, London mansions or Liechtenstein trusts to ploughing them into new Russian factories. More On this story On this topic Editorial The Kremlin’s undeclared war in Ukraine has sparked escalating […]

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The skyscrapers of Moscow City business district, center, stand beyond the illuminated towers of Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, July 17, 2014. OAO Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, natural gas producer OAO Novatek and OAO Gazprombank, the third-largest lender, are among those hit by the penalties, the U.S. Treasury Department said. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg Russia’s business community and economic officials are in shock over the arrest of Vladimir Yevtushenkov , one of the country’s leading industrialists, and they are afraid. When Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the country’s big business club, sent a petition in support of Mr Yevtushenkov to President Vladimir Putin, he thought it wiser to do so by courier than in person. More On this story On this topic IN Europe Mr Yevtushenkov, one of the country’s richest men and main shareholder of the conglomerate […]

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