On March 14 (Monday) local time, Equinor officially announced that it would stop trading Russian oil. After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, the company had previously decided to withdraw from its business in Russia.
Equinor’s official announcement comes four days after CEO Anders Opedal said the company had halted oil transactions with Russia.
Statoil has been operating in Russia for more than 30 years.
“When we expressed our wish to begin exiting (the Russian joint venture), we also stopped trading with Rosneft from that day on,” Opedal said.
Equinor added on Monday that it had signed a contract before the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out and the contract stipulates that the company will receive four oil cargoes in March. The company said receiving the shipments would be “fully compliant with current sanctions”.
On February 28, just days after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, Equinor said it would withdraw from its joint venture with Rosneft and expected to write down $1.2 billion in assets held. “We will now cease new investments in our Russian operations and exit the joint venture in a manner consistent with our values,” Opedal said at the time.
After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, British Petroleum (BP), French Total Energies (TTEF.PA) and Italian energy group ENI have recently announced that they will stop buying oil from Russia or withdraw from joint ventures in Russia.
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