US sanctions have paralyzed the work of foreign divisions of the Russian oil company “Lukoil”
Russian oil company “Lukoil”, which along with “Rosneft” has been hit by US and British sanctions, is facing serious difficulties in the operation of its foreign units in Iraq, Finland and Switzerland. reports Reuters.
Iraqi state-owned company Somo has cancelled the shipment of three batches of oil produced by “Lukoil” within its share in the “West Qurna-2” field, due to concerns related to US and UK sanctions. “Lukoil” owns 75% of the shares in this field, which has a capacity of 480 thousand barrels per day, the rest belongs to the Iraqi company North Oil Company.
The trading division of “Lukoil” – Litasco (Geneva, Switzerland) – has problems with chartering ships, as British ship brokers refuse to cooperate with it. Due to sanctions restrictions, Litasco has reduced some of its staff.
In Finland, where “Lukoil” owns the Teboil gas station network, the company has faced a refusal of banks to service its financial transactions. Because of this, about a thousand employees and operators of Teboil gas stations may be out of work in the coming weeks.
Due to the sanctions, as noted by the CEO of the Norwegian company Gunvor, Torbjorn Tornqvist, “all international activities of Lukoil are paralyzed”.
“Nobody can conduct operations with them. Many jobs are at risk, and the work of oil refining facilities may be seriously disrupted”, he explained.
Currently, the overseas “oil empire” “Lukoil” covers oil refineries in Bulgaria, Romania and the Netherlands, a network of gas stations in EU countries, as well as oil production facilities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Egypt, UAE, Latin America, West and Central Africa.
