Itar-Tass: Politically motivated sanctions may jeopardize global energy security
Politically-motivated sanctions may adversely impact global energy security, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
He said that no one had bothered to reckon possible impacts of the anti-Russian sanctions on the global energy sector. “In Russia, we try to analyze this situation but as concerns the global situation, as has been noted here by many, it would be better not to tamper with the energy sector, since the balance of energy security is a very delicate balance,” Novak said at the international investment forum in Sochi.
“No one has considered possible consequences,” he said. “We are discussing these issues with CEOs of biggest companies operating in Russia, such as Shell and Total, and neither of them seems to understand how these companies should work in conditions of sanctions. And what will become with contracts signed earlier, what will become with their shares in projects, how they are to withdraw from the project if it comes to that? No one fully understands such things.”
Earlier on Friday, Novak said that France’s Total said it would continue its projects in Russia that had been launched before the sanctions. Total is a partner of Russia’s LUKoil, Novatek and Gazprom in Russian projects.