Will the Russian invasion of Ukraine reshape the hydrocarbon planisphere?
The oil giant Shell announced on Tuesday its intention to withdraw from Russian oil and gas "gradually, to align with the new directives of the British government", which will not fail to heckle a market already very shaken by the international crisis.
"As an immediate first step", he announced in a press release, the Anglo-Dutch group will stop "all spot purchases on the Russian crude oil market" and will "close its service stations, as well as its activities of aviation fuels and lubricants in Russia".
Last week, after announcing its withdrawal from the NL Sakhalin 2 liquefied natural gas plant, in which it holds a 27.5% stake and which is operated by Gazprom, Shell nevertheless bought a shipment of Russian crude oil from the Swiss trader Trafigura at the lowest price ever recorded, namely 28.50 dollars per barrel of Brent.
An error for which the company apologizes on Tuesday: “We are fully aware that the decision we made last week to buy a shipment of Russian crude oil (…) was not the right one and we are sorry for that” , said managing director Ben van Beurden.
"It's a complex challenge"
The company also plans to end its participation in the Baltic Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which it helped finance.
Crude prices rose above $139 a barrel on Monday to their highest level since July 2008, as the United States and its European allies talk increasingly seriously of an embargo on imports of Russian oil.
Read alsoSanctions against Russia: British experts believe that there is still “a lot of room”
The hydrocarbon giant is “changing (its) crude oil supply chain to remove Russian volumes,” added Ben van Beurden.
“It is a complex challenge” which will “require concerted action between governments, energy suppliers and consumers”, while large hydrocarbon reserves are in Russia.
This effort could therefore “take weeks”.
“These societal changes highlight the dilemma of putting pressure on the Russian government for its atrocities in Ukraine and ensuring a stable and secure supply of energy across Europe,” he argued.
Despite a series of massive and unprecedented sanctions against Moscow, the energy sector has so far been spared, in particular because Europe is very dependent on Russian gas, Germany and Italy in particular.
This is evidenced by the European Union's decision to exclude from the Swift financial mechanism seven major Russian banks, except for the two establishments that ensure the transactions.
16.6% of annual natural gas production
Europe imports 40% of its gas from Russia.
The British and Dutch Prime Ministers, Boris Johnson and Mark Rutte, both defended the obligation to organize a “step by step” transition.
Only Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister for the Economy, gave a horizon, asserting that Europe was going to "accelerate" the solutions "to become independent of Russian gas", and that he wanted "the challenge of winter 2022-2023”.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prospect that Western countries will no longer have access to Russian hydrocarbons has inflamed energy markets, pushing the price of European natural gas to record highs while crude oil prices are approaching their historic highs.
On February 27, the fourth day of the Russian invasion, Shell's British rival British Petroleum (BP) announced that it was giving up its 19.75% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft.
Equinor and Exxon Mobil have also distanced themselves from their investments in Russia.
Conversely, the Total group decided, as long as no sanctions were imposed by the States, to maintain its activities in Russia.
Russia represents 16.6% of Total's annual natural gas and liquefied natural gas production and almost the same proportion of its oil barrels.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said on Monday that he had no pressure from France's "highest authorities" to leave Russia.
