Another Western Energy Company Ends Russian Cooperation
ExxonMobil Corp. was the first Western company to bow to Western sanctions against Moscow and suspend offshore Arctic drilling for Rosneft, the Kremlin-owned oil giant. Now another large Western energy company, France’s Total, is ending its effort with Russia’s Lukoil to explore for shale oil in Siberia.
But Total CEO Christopher de Margerie told the Financial Times that the move isn’t likely to have much of an impact on the company. “The Lukoil joint venture is definitely stopped,” he said. “But it hadn’t started, so it doesn’t have any impact [on Total].”
Still, de Margerie made the comments the same day his company announced a program to sell $10 billion in assets from 2015 through 2017, and reduced its goal for oil production in 2017 from 3 million barrels per day down to 2.8 million barrels per day.
The most recent round of sanctions also more severely limits Russian energy companies’ access to Western financing and technology in support of developing energy resources.
Novatek is also subject to the Western sanctions, but de Margerie told the Financial Times that he hoped it could obtain financing, “but not in dollars,” and thereby not violate the sanctions.
Total also is part of a syndicate working to develop the $50 billion Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan. The development of Kashagan, the largest oil field outside the Middle East, has been plagued by a series of problems that have led to delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns.
Source: oilprice- Another Western Energy Company Ends Russian Cooperation
