Rise above hate? Putin says no sanctions needed against West
1 May 2014 10:57 PM GMT
‘We would very much wish not to resort to any measures in response. I hope we won’t get to that point,’ he told reporters after meeting with the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan. ‘But if something like that continues, we will of course have to think about who is working in the key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector, and how.’
The United States on Monday unveiled a new round of sanctions aimed at business leaders and companies close to Putin, while the European Union followed up on Tuesday by naming 15 Russians and Ukrainians to its blacklist, moving to freeze assets and deny visas. ‘Regarding the second package, it’s not clear at all what this is linked to, because there is no cause and effect link with what is happening now in Ukraine and Russia,’ he said.
SIGNIFICANT TIES
Though some Western oil companies left Russia in recent years because of a difficult business climate, US companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp, along with British major BP, have significant ties there.
Igor Sechin, the head of state-controlled Rosneft, was named in the latest US sanctions, though not his company, in which BP holds an 18.5 percent stake. In Russia, Exxon Mobil’s net acreage holdings in Sakhalin at the end of 2013 totaled 85,000 acres, all offshore, and its net acreage in the Rosneft joint venture agreements for the Kara and Black Seas was 11.3 million acres. The two companies also have a joint venture to evaluate the development of tight-oil reserves in western Siberia.
In the United States, Rosneft unit Neftegaz in March 2013 bought a 30 percent stake in 20 deepwater exploration blocks held by Exxon in the US Gulf of Mexico. Exxon Mobil declined to comment on Putin’s latest comments on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Chevron Corp owns a 15 percent stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which transports crude oil from Kazakhstan through Russia to the Black Sea.
The United States on Monday unveiled a new round of sanctions aimed at business leaders and companies close to Putin, while the European Union followed up on Tuesday by naming 15 Russians and Ukrainians to its blacklist, moving to freeze assets and deny visas. ‘Regarding the second package, it’s not clear at all what this is linked to, because there is no cause and effect link with what is happening now in Ukraine and Russia,’ he said.
SIGNIFICANT TIES
Though some Western oil companies left Russia in recent years because of a difficult business climate, US companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp, along with British major BP, have significant ties there.
Igor Sechin, the head of state-controlled Rosneft, was named in the latest US sanctions, though not his company, in which BP holds an 18.5 percent stake. In Russia, Exxon Mobil’s net acreage holdings in Sakhalin at the end of 2013 totaled 85,000 acres, all offshore, and its net acreage in the Rosneft joint venture agreements for the Kara and Black Seas was 11.3 million acres. The two companies also have a joint venture to evaluate the development of tight-oil reserves in western Siberia.
In the United States, Rosneft unit Neftegaz in March 2013 bought a 30 percent stake in 20 deepwater exploration blocks held by Exxon in the US Gulf of Mexico. Exxon Mobil declined to comment on Putin’s latest comments on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Chevron Corp owns a 15 percent stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which transports crude oil from Kazakhstan through Russia to the Black Sea.
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