MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) – British oil giant is determined to continue its work in Russia and will not change its business strategy in the country, despite the sanctions imposed against Moscow by the United States and European Union, representative of Shell’s press service told RIA Novosti on Friday.
“Shell continues to run business in Russia both in the upstream and downstream without any changes. We monitor the situation regarding the sanctions. But so far there have been no changes in either the business itself or in the business strategy,” the source said.
Last week the United States expanded the list of sanctions against Russia, adding the country’s major entities, including Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank, Rosneft and Novatek. The companies have been denied access to US financial markets, while the US-based companies and individuals are prohibited from granting loans to them for more than 90 days. Earlier on Friday, the European Union also extended its sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis, adding 15 individuals and 18 companies to the blacklist.
Gazprom is Shell’s largest Russian partner, which owns 50 percent of Sakhalin Energy, a joint international operator of Sakhalin II project run by Russia, UK and Japan. Shell and Gazprom Neft also own Salym Petroleum Development (SPD) on a parity basis. The output of crude by SPD amounted to 7 million tons of oil in 2013.
