Giant of Russian gas In the North Sea. Image: GETTY IMAGES.
Giant of Russian gas In the North Sea, Gazprom earns £39 million.
According to financial records, Russian energy behemoth Gazprom made €45 million (£39 million) last year from its North Sea gas production.
The Sillimanite field, located in waters off the coasts of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, has been producing gas for Gazprom since 2020.
That gas supplied from the United Kingdom was funding “Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine” was deemed “totally unacceptable” by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.
Russia would be “ratcheted up economic pressure” according to the administration.
Gazprom of Russia and Wintershall of Germany have a joint venture that operates the Sillimanite field 200 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands. The gas that is extracted from the field ends up in the Dutch coast.
Aiming to limit Russia’s capacity to profit from oil exports and support its conflict in Ukraine, the UK, the US, and the EU have imposed harsh economic sanctions. Despite this, there is no allegation that the agreement is illegal.
Although Gazprom is not itself subject to sanctions, the UK government has imposed them on a number of Gazprom executives, including CEO Alexei Miller.
Despite significantly decreased volumes since the start of the war, the corporation continues to supply gas to continental Europe via pipelines.
Gazprom International UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia’s energy behemoth Gazprom, paid out a €41 million dividend to its immediate Dutch owner, Gazprom International Projects BV, in 2022, according to the company’s financial records.
In June of current year, a dividend payment totaling €1.7 million was made.
The Moscow-based PJSC Gazprom is the ultimate owner of the corporation.
Russian state news agency TASS reports that Gazprom, which is owned by the Russian state, contributes $80 billion (£63 billion) annually to the Russian government, making it the biggest taxpayer in the country.
Additionally, it has sent its own militias to the front lines in Ukraine and funded them.
“It is absolutely intolerable that gas extracted from UK territory is supporting Putin’s unlawful conflict against Ukraine,” Sir Ed, a former energy secretary, stated.
The UK’s stance towards Russian oil and gas was criticized by the campaign organization Global Witness.
“Whilst the government decries the war, it’s absurd to allow the subsidiary of a Russian state enterprise which has its own militia fighting in Ukraine to enrich Putin’s regime from the North Sea,” according to it.
A government spokesperson stated that the country would “continue to work alongside our partners to deny Russia access to any of our goods or technologies that it could use in its war machine, restricting Russia’s ability to fight a 21st century war” .
“Putin and his supporters must – and will – pay the price for their illegal invasion of Ukraine,” said the politician.
“We will continue to ratchet up economic pressure and come down hard on all emerging forms of circumvention until Ukraine prevails and peace is secured.”
In all, the corporation owed the governments of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands €29 million in taxes.
Four million euros came from the windfall tax in the United Kingdom, which hit energy firms hard when prices spiked due to the conflict in Ukraine, and five million from the windfall tax in the Netherlands.
The financial records show that sales made outside of the UK account for 100% of Gazprom International UK’s revenue.
The business’s gas sales deal with Wintershall was terminated in September of this year, and the records reveal that the gas sales agreement was replaced with one with the Swiss trading company Gunvor.
Last year, while the parent firm was on the verge of bankruptcy, the German government nationalized Gazprom’s UK energy supply business. This business served thousands of businesses. The company is now known as SEFE Energy.
Neither Wintershall nor Gazprom were reachable for comment when the reporter reached out to them.