Extract from FT “Week in review” published 2 August 2014
Majors brace as sanctions against Russia tighten
News and information on Shell Plc
Majors brace as sanctions against Russia tighten
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said Thursday, July 31 that the recent events around the Ukraine crisis, including the crash of flight MH17 and the subsequent US and EU sanctions against Moscow, were a “game-changer” from an international political, economic and trade point of view. Shell, which has assets in both Russia and Ukraine, has also declared force majeure on its unconventional gas exploration operations in eastern Ukraine, van Beurden said on a Q2 earnings conference call. Van Beurden said it was too early to know exactly what the impact of the latest international sanctions against Russia would be for Shell.
Extracts
Though the Arctic is believed to contain about a fifth of the world’s undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves, harvesting that oil and gas has proved excruciatingly difficult. In the Alaskan Arctic’s Chukchi Sea, for instance, Royal Dutch Shell’s drilling program has been plagued by equipment failures, as well as regulatory and legal issues, which forced the company to suspend its drilling plans this year. But despite these setbacks, there is one Arctic region that has generated considerable interest among oil companies and has been hailed as the next big offshore oil frontier — the Norwegian Barents Sea.