15 Oct 2024
Well, well, well—look who’s crying foul! Shell, the lovable oil giant with a heart of, well, pure carbon, is now throwing a hissy fit because gasp Russia did something shady. After Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine (as one does), Shell bolted from its Russian investments like a thief in the night. Now, the Kremlin is coming after them for a cool €1 billion, and Shell, bless its greedy little heart, just can’t believe this is happening.
Here’s the scoop: Shell had a 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas field, a cozy arrangement with Gazprom (Russia’s state-owned gas company) and a couple of Japanese firms like Mitsui and Mitsubishi. But after Russia basically swiped the joint venture and handed it over to a homegrown entity, Shell decided it wasn’t playing along. Did they think Putin would care? Of course not! Russia casually sold off Shell’s stake—because why not—passing it to Novatek and Gazprom.