Shell continues to benefit from Russian gas

The British oil and gas company Shell has still not left the Russian market – a year after promising to stop doing business with the terrorist country.

According to an investigation by Global Witness analysts, in 2022 Shell participated in almost one-eighth of Russian gas exports by sea. The company said the deals were the result of “long-term contractual obligations” and did not violate sanctions.

In particular, on May 9, 2023, a huge tanker capable of transporting more than 160,000 cubic meters of LNG left the Russian port of Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula. The cargo was purchased by Shell before it was sent to its final destination of Hong Kong. According to the information provided by the Kpler database, this is one of the eight batches of LNG that Shell bought in Yamal this year, the BBC writes.

In 2022, Shell accounted for 12% of Russian LNG marine exports. Last year, the company was one of the five largest LNG traders of Russian origin.

It will be recalled that in March of last year, Shell apologized for the purchase of Rosneft and announced that it intends to abandon Russian raw materials. The company also sold its enterprises in Russia and stopped cooperation with the state energy giant Gazprom.

At the time, the company announced that it would begin a “phased withdrawal from Russian oil products, pipeline gas and LNG.” But Shell warned it would be a “difficult challenge”.

Currently, the energy company continues to receive LNG cargoes from two Russian ports — in Yamal and Sakhalin.