01 October 2014, News Wires – Schlumberger is pulling a raft of expatriate workers out of Russia amid sanctions imposed on the country over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, according to a report.
Around 20 mid-level and senior manager who are citizens of the US or European Union and are employed in Russia by the oilfield services giant are to be withdrawn, Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources.
Sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and European Union have, among other things, targeted the country’s oil sector, in particular limiting Russian companies’ access to capital for the purposes of deep-water, Arctic or shale resources exploration and production.
The fate of ExxonMobil’s joint venture with Rosneft for Arctic exploration has recently been thrown into uncertainty amid reports the US giant may have to suspend its co-operation with the Russian state-controlled player due to the sanctions, after the pair recorded a discovery with a debut well in the Kara Sea.
ExxonMobil is winding down operations with the semi-submersible rig West Alpha at the Universitetskaya-1 well after being given a short extension by the US Treasury Department beyond a 26 September deadline to comply with new sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
– Upstream
