{"id":12173,"date":"2025-01-13T23:19:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T23:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=12173"},"modified":"2025-01-13T23:19:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T23:19:54","slug":"pressure-mounts-on-us-oil-services-group-slb-to-exit-russia-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=12173","title":{"rendered":"Pressure mounts on US oil services group SLB to exit Russia operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=2daa512a-8eeb-43c1-9339-e1b641a073f3&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Oilfield services company SLB is facing growing pressure from US lawmakers to pull out of Russia following the imposition of sweeping new sanctions against the nation\u2019s energy sector by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<p>Two US congressmen told the Financial Times the company, better known as Schlumberger, should get out of Russia or risk breaching US sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Lloyd Doggett and Jake Auchincloss issued the warning following an order published by the Biden administration on Friday, prohibiting the provision of US petroleum services to persons located in Russia from February 27.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/b6ddea47-db46-43b2-a99b-ad6032415916\" data-trackable=\"link\">SLB<\/a> is one of only a handful of US-based oil services companies continuing to operate in Russia following Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Its two biggest western rivals Baker Hughes and Halliburton sold their Russian operations to local managers in 2022. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A Financial Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/c7bc6486-964f-40d9-9179-c5c9d8adeddb\" data-trackable=\"link\">investigation<\/a> last year found that SLB had signed new contracts, advertised for more than 1,000 jobs and imported equipment into Russia since its competitors had exited the country.<\/p>\n<p>SLB did not reply to a request for comment on the new restrictions. On its website, it said it takes responsibility for export controls and sanctions compliance seriously. \u201cWe have committed significant resources across the company to ensure we meet or exceed the various international laws,\u201d SLB said.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury determination did not specifically name Houston-based SLB or its Russian-based subsidiary. But both congressmen and legal experts said the order increased the risk of legal problems facing SLB if it maintained its presence in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/russia\" data-trackable=\"link\">Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny reasonable interpretation of Treasury\u2019s new guidance that \u2018cuts off access to US services related to the extraction of crude oil\u2019 would mean getting US oilfield services companies out of Russia,\u201d said Doggett, a Democratic member of Congress for Texas.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if SLB and any other US-based oilfields services companies would have to exit Russia to comply with the order, a Treasury spokeswoman said: \u201cThe prohibition on petroleum services prohibits all US persons, wherever located, from providing petroleum services, directly or indirectly, to any person located in the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In October a bipartisan group of more than 50 members of congress wrote to the Biden administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d55b6e83-d0ae-4a40-98f4-ac766d1686d3\" data-trackable=\"link\">demanding<\/a> tougher sanctions on US-based oilfield services companies operating in Russia, alleging SLB\u2019s work in the country was fuelling President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war machine. <\/p>\n<p>Oilfield services providers carry out much of the grunt work for the global <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/oil-gas\" data-trackable=\"link\">oil and gas industry<\/a> \u2014 everything from building roads and laying pipes to drilling wells and pumping crude. They also provide access to sophisticated technologies that are vital to support exploration and development of complex drilling operations.<\/p>\n<p>Until now western policymakers have avoided imposing comprehensive sanctions on oilfield services in Russia over concerns it would choke off fossil fuel exports and cause a jump in global oil prices. But the Biden administration said last week that oil markets were now expected to be oversupplied in 2025 and the new sanctions would \u201csubstantially increase\u201d the risks associated with the Russian oil trade.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Paner, a partner at law firm Hughes Hubbard &amp; Reed, said the Biden administration\u2019s new measures meant provision of oilfield services in Russia were now \u201cprohibited and sanctionable under US law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe US sanctions risk exposure arising from SLB Russia\u2019s operations could not be higher at this point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"7c0981bb-9b7a-4737-8f3f-65325a1d768a\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/7c0981bb-9b7a-4737-8f3f-65325a1d768a\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2290\/1288\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Craig Kennedy, a Russia analyst affiliated with Harvard\u2019s Davis Center, said the new Treasury sanctions appeared aimed at SLB and they would skirt it at their peril. If SLB was forced to pull out of Russia it would \u201crattle the Kremlin\u201d due to the increased cost it would impose on the country\u2019s oil sector, he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussia has relied heavily on state of the art western reservoir modelling technology to design efficient, low-cost development plans.\u00a0It\u2019s something they\u2019ve struggled to replicate, and won\u2019t find elsewhere.\u00a0Now, for the first time in 30 years, they\u2019ll be on their own,\u201d said Kennedy. <\/p>\n<p>SLB has run foul of US sanctions before. In 2015, the company pleaded guilty to a federal charge and paid $232.7mn for facilitating trade with Iran and Sudan.<\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Chris Cook in London<\/em> <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/2daa512a-8eeb-43c1-9339-e1b641a073f3\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}