Olefins and polyolefins giant LyondellBasell (LYB) has become the latest multinational chemical company to announce plans to pull out of Russia partly or altogether. The Rotterdam-registered, Houston-managed company said this week it has decided “to cease operations” at two office locations in in the country. Its offices in Moscow and Togliatti have now begun winding down activities.
French petrochemicals, plastics and energy group TotalEnergies has taken a $4.1 billion writedown on its flagship Russian gas exploration project and is seen to have softened its position on exiting the country despite earlier statements that it could not pull out.
“In light of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by the Russian government,” BASF announced has on Apr. 27 that it has decided to wind down all of its remaining business activities in Russia and Belarus at the beginning of July.
Henkel has now decided to pull out of Russia, due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The German consumer chemicals producer said, however, it would keep paying its 2,500 employees there until the exit is complete.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has criticized Western governments’ race to replace Russian oil, gas and coal imports with “any available alternate fossil-based fuel “in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Retreating from plans to move toward renewable energy could fuel the world's "mutually assured destruction" through climate change as much as a war, he stressed.
Chinese oil and petrochemicals giant Sinopec is planning what it says is its highest capital spending budget in corporate history for 2022 after posting its highest profit in a decade in 2021. In a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange, the group said it expects to spend 198 billion yuan ($31.10 billion) this year, 18% more than last year.
TotalEnergies announced on Mar. 22 that it would stop buying Russian oil by the end of 2022 and refrain from concluding any new investment projects in the country. A day later, it modified the announcement, saying that the decision does not apply to natural gas.
Another European chemicals deal has been torpedoed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Borealis has announced it will not go ahead with plans to sell its nitrogen business, including fertilizer, melamine and technical nitrogen products, to Russian-owned, Swiss-based fertilizer producer EuroChem.
After two years of relative quiet on the drilling front between the market glut and the coronavirus pandemic, US interest in shale is picking up again as energy prices soar in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Under pressure from economic sanctions imposed on Russian assets by Europe and the US after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Wintershall Dea, the German oil and gas producer owned to 67% by BASF said it will write off its €1.1 billion financing of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project and will not pursue any new projects in Russia.
Hot on the heels of BP’s decision to quit its Russian shareholding, Shell and Equinor have announced they too will exit their joint ventures in the country, following its invasion of Ukraine.
Western energy companies pursuing projects with Russia are feeling the heat after that country’s invasion of Ukraine, and UK giant BP has become the first to announce plans to sever business ties.
