Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 21 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Over the last three years, he added, global refin- The OPEC+ group’s April 2020 agreement
ing capacity has gone down by around 4mn bar- allows for a collective 430,000 bpd rise in pro-
rels per day, with more than half of the total, or duction each month, with the increase divided
2.7mn bpd, lost since the outbreak of the coro- among all member states. ™
navirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The prince went on to say that he could not
predict what kind of decisions OPEC+ might
make about production quotas in its next agree-
ment. The group may boost output if global
market conditions warrant such a move, he
said, but “the havoc you see now” is substantial
enough to make forecasts premature. The only
thing that is certain, he remarked, is that there is
merit in producers working together to stabilise
world oil markets. Prince Abdulaziz at JMMC meeting in March 2022 (Photo: Saudi Min. of Energy)

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Schroeder departs from Rosneft’s board

GERHARD Schroeder, Germany’s former operates the Nord Stream 1 pipeline system that
chancellor, has stepped down from his post as was built to pump Russian gas across the Baltic
chairman of Russia’s state-owned oil producer Sea to Germany.
Rosneft. For this insistence on maintaining ties to
State-owned Rosneft announced Schroeder’s Russia, Schroeder has drawn criticism from
departure from the board on May 20. Accord- Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) party,
ing to a company statement, the chairman has which is a member of Scholz’s ruling coalition.
informed Rosneft that he is not able to extend SPD legislators decided last week to strip the
his term. former chancellor of his seat in the lower house
Schroeder’s term as chairman was due to of the Bundestag, as well as his taxpayer-funded
expire next month, when Rosneft is due to hold staff and office, after saying last month that they
its annual general meeting (AGM) of sharehold- hoped he would quit the party and were prepar-
ers. He had served as chairman of the board of ing to expel him.
directors since 2007, two years after ceding the Schroeder has attracted considerable crit-
chancellorship to Angela Merkel, who was then icism for his response to reports of atrocities
succeeded by Olaf Scholz in December 2021. committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. He
The former chancellor has drawn consider- has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin
able criticism for his strong and long-standing should not be blamed for these actions, as he did
ties to Russian oil and gas companies – and also not believe Putin would issue orders paving the
for his refusal to disavow those ties in the wake way for war crimes.
of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in The former chancellor was not the only Ger-
late February. man public figure to quit Rosneft’s board on May
Scholz had urged him to step down as chair- 20. Matthias Warnig, a businessman who has
man of Rosneft on May 19. worked for Dresdner Bank (and a former officer
Schroeder has also worked closely with Gaz- of the East secret police who has a long history of
prom, Russia’s state-run natural gas giant. He murky ties to Russian companies), also stepped
still serves as chairman of the shareholder com- down, according to the state-owned oil compa-
mittee of Nord Stream AG, the consortium that ny’s statement. ™

Schroeder (R), shown sharing a meal with his friend Putin (L) in 2002 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Week 21 25•May•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P15