Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 37 2019

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM
US won’t rule out sanctions on Venezuela, Rosneft
RUSSIA
The US government may take action against Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil operator, for expanding its trade in Venezuelan crude oil.
THE US government may take action against Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil operator, for expand- ing its trade in Venezuelan crude oil.
Elliot Abrams, the US special representative for Venezuela, told reporters during a phone briefing on September 10 that Washington would not rule out sanctions on Rosneft, which is majority-owned by the Russian government. When asked whether Rosneft might be penal- ised in this fashion, he replied: “Yes, it can be. We have not gotten to that point yet.”
US authorities see sanctions as an option in light of reports showing that PdVSA, Venezue- la’s national oil company (NOC), and other state agencies have become increasingly dependent on Rosneft, he said. “At some point, we will have to consider the question of Rosneft’s conduct and what kind of reaction we want to have to it,” he commented.
Abrams cited evidence indicating that the Russian company had come to serve as one of PdVSA’s main conduits to the world oil market. Rosneft has been taking delivery of increasing volumes of Venezuelan crude with the aim of re-selling it and pocketing the profit, he said.
His remarks drew an angry response from
Rosneft, which issued a statement saying that all of the contracts governing the oil shipments that had drawn Washington’s attention pre-dated the imposition of tougher sanctions on Caracas in January 2019. The company warned Washington against trying to limit its activities in Venezuela, saying that such actions would amount to illegal expropriation.
“In this context, [Rosneft] reserves the right to protect its investments in corresponding national and international legislations,” it said in the statement.
It also described Abrams’ remarks as an attempt to generate “additional agitation on the global market, which affects the invest- ment price of the company.” Nevertheless, the statement added, “Rosneft is ready for an open dialogue with the US authorities to clarify its position.”
The US government tightened restrictions on trade with Venezuela earlier this year, in support of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s claim that President Nicolas Maduro’s had used fraudulent means to secure re-election in 2018. The revi- sions in the sanctions regime penalise entities doing business with PdVSA. ™
Moscow to help Sberbank at Antipinsky plant
RUSSIA
Sberbank took control of the plant this year following its bankruptcy.
RUSSIA’S Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Natural Resources will consider changing the exploitation conditions for three oilfields used by the troubled Antipinsky refinery, de-facto controlled by its largest creditor, state-controlled Sberbank, RBC daily reported on September 16 citing unnamed officials.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the trou- bles of Antipinsky led its largest creditor Sber- bank to prepare for bankrupting the company. Sberbank’s CEO German Gref also reportedy requested President Vladimir Putin to support Russia’s largest independent vertically integrated refinery.
One of the requests, reportedly now being reviewed by the government, was to lift the obli- gation for Antipinsky to refine oil from the three fields it controls. Instead Gref asked to allow the company to swap oil from extraction assets it
controls for cheaper oil from West Siberia, saving up to $120mn annually.
Reportedly Gref also requested support from budget funds in the form of increased excise duty rebates on buying oil for refining (up from 10% to 50%), potentially costing RUB12bn ($187mn) annually.
Earlier this month Swiss-registered New Stream Trading, controlled by Dmitry Mazurov, the former owner of Russian Antipinsky refin- ery, sued Sberbank in the London Court of Inter- national Arbitration (LCIA).
New Stream claims “several hundred mil- lion dollars” of losses due to Sberbank’s actions as de-facto owner of Antipinsky, including not delivering oil products despite receiving signif- icant prepayments. Mazurov himself is accused in Russia of embezzlement and fraud, and is cur- rently under arrest there.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 37 18•September•2019