THE SHELL LEAKS FILES — 24 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-097
The Sakhalin Papers LXXXVII: The Port Under Threat — Washington’s Warning of Crushing Sanctions Against a German Harbour
On 5 August 2020, three American senators sent an extraordinary letter to the operators of Mukran Port on Germany’s Baltic coast. The warning extended beyond the port company to its directors, shareholders and employees. The senators threatened devastating financial consequences unless the port stopped supporting Nord Stream 2. The original correspondence, American sanctions legislation, German parliamentary records and contemporaneous reporting reveal an important distinction: the threat was genuine, but some of the powers invoked had not yet been enacted into law.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-097
Publication date: 24 October 2026
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers — Shell, Gazprom and Russia
Previous instalment: SLF-2007-096, The Sakhalin Papers LXXXVI, 23 October 2026
Principal sources: Original letter dated 5 August 2020 from US Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Ron Johnson; Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019; CAATSA Section 232; US Department of State sanctions guidance; Shell’s authenticated April 2017 financing announcement; contemporaneous Associated Press, Reuters and German reporting; German Bundestag parliamentary records; the German government’s response of October 2020; subsequent US sanctions announcements; and European judicial records concerning the separate regulatory dispute.
Evidence classification: Authenticated correspondence, enacted legislation, official government records, corporate disclosures, contemporaneous journalism, judicial context and separately identified editorial commentary.
The oil giants have apparently escaped a $12 billion claim because Kazakhstan was too late bringing it. But the wider Kashagan dispute is far from settled, and the embarrassing questions about cost overruns, alleged corruption, environmental damage and corporate accountability are not going away.
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES — 22 OCTOBER 2026
Editorial illustration accompanying a review of Shell-related U.S. and Australian court records.
