Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 40 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Georgia's revenue service denies reports

of imports of sanctioned petrol

GEORGIA THE revenue service of Georgia’s finance min- accordance with legislation,” and said “with full
istry responded to allegations that Georgia responsibility” that the reports “alleging import
Georgia is keen to avoid imports thousands of tonnes of petrol from a of 81,000 tonnes of sanctioned oil products to
accusations of side- Russian company under Western sanctions, Georgia from Russia serves to mislead the public
stepping sanctions. rejecting the claim as “disinformation”, reports and discredit the agency”.
the news outlet Agenda.Ge. Back in July, US Financial Market Statis-
The state body said it had reviewed a customs tics Network and the Bureau of Industry and
document submitted by Lasha Parulava, the Security of the US Department of the Treasury
executive director of the Anti-corruption Move- included Georgia in their list of countries that
ment NGO, that showed import of petrol from a could assist Russia and Belarus to bypass sanc-
Russian company via railway. tions imposed as a result of Russia’s aggression
While acknowledging the import of petrol war against Ukraine.
in a single 60-tonne railway carriage, the service Ukrainian officials have several times
said the company in question – not named for accused the Georgian government of support-
confidentiality reasons – had not been under ing Russia to circumvent sanctions through the
sanctions related to Russia’s war in Ukraine at use of Georgian territory and banks, allegations
the time of customs registration. strongly condemned by the ruling Georgian
The revenue service also said customs proce- Dream authorities, demanding evidence to
dures for the product had been carried out “in prove the "unfounded accusations". ™

Russia seizes Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project

RUSSIA RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin on Octo- biggest buyer of LNG from the terminal. Russia’s
ber 7 ordered the seizure of the ExxonMo- Novatek is reportedly interested in buying the
It follows a similar bil-led Sakhalin-1 oil project, signing a decree share of the other partner at Sakhalin-1, Shell.
move at the Sakhalin-2 that establishes a new operator to manage the This said, Japan had already stopped buying
project. development. crude from Russia in June, and so they may be
It follows a similar presidential decree intro- more willing to withdraw from Sakhalin-1.
duced at the end of June, under which Russia As for India’s OVL, it has expressed no desire
transferred all rights and obligations of the con- to leave Russia in the wake of Moscow’s inva-
sortium managing the Sakhalin-2 project to a sion of Ukraine. In fact, the company and other
Russian entity. Both decrees give the Russian Indian oil refiners have been ramping up Rus-
government authority to decide whether for- sian oil purchases, taking advantage of the steep
eign shareholders can retain their interests in discount that the supplies currently trade at as a
the projects. result of sanctions and their rejection by Western
ExxonMobil operates Sakhalin-1 with a 30% buyers. ™
interest, while Russia’s Rosneft, India’s ONGC
Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Japan’s SODECO serve
as partners. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
the project, consisting of three offshore fields,
was producing around 220,000 barrels per day
of oil. But it has since fallen to only 10,000 bpd.
ExxonMobil announced its intention in
March to withdraw from the Russian oil indus-
try completely, making it doubtful that the US
major will apply to retain its stake in Sakhalin-1.
Japanese investors have been more reluctant to
give up their energy assets in Russia. At Sakha-
lin-2, Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi opted to
retain their shares in the Gazprom-led project,
citing concerns about the impact their exit would
have on Japanese energy security. Japan is the

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 15•October•2022