The Russian natural gas giant will now see severe blows as Putin continues to wreck Ukraine. Europe’s largest oil company Shell will now exit Gazprom. Shell had close to $3 billion non-current assets in Gazprom by the end of 2021. It decided to abandon the massive project, Sakhalin 2 LNG plant in which it has a share of 27.5% not to forget the equal ownership and operations being controlled by Gazprom.
Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden expressed he was appalled by the lives lost in Ukraine and he strongly condemns the inhuman act of Putin using his military might and threatening European security and international order.
Another rival to the Shell company, British Petroleum (BP) CEO Bernard Looney also convened an urgent meet up with his global leadership team on 24th February 2022 hours after the Russian offensive on Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv began. This was informed to Reuters by two BP employees.
Looney informed that the Russian invasion was not acceptable and the only viable option for BP was to exit Rosneft. Russia is so blinded by its aggression on Ukraine it calls the offensive a ‘special operation’.
Looney also had a word with British business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng about BP’s exit plan from Russia. Kwasi was happy to accept the exit of BP from Russia. He also agreed with Shell’s exit plan from Russia. The Sakhalin 2 LNG plant is situated off the northeastern coast of Russia, producing close to 11.5 million tonnes of LNG every year, exporting to major consumers Like China and Japan.
Shell is the largest trader of LNG in the world and its exit will halt its ambitions to supply LNG to growing markets in the coming years. However, Shell is confident and says its plans to abandon Gazprom will not stop it from moving to renewable energy.
Last week when Germany restricted completely itself from the Nord Stream 2 baltic gas pipeline which is the crucial project linking Russia to Germany, Shell also wishes to leave its involvement from this major venture, it had also funded this project as it was a part of the consortium of companies.
