MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti) — Russia’s oil giant Rosneft has proposed to the country’s government to amend its corporate purchases law or scrap import duties on drilling equipment in the wake of the recent Western sanctions, a Russian economic daily wrote Friday.
In mid-August, Rosneft and Texas-based ExxonMobil corporation are due to start drilling in the Kara Sea off Russia’s northern coast, and the new sanctions require drilling equipment producers to obtain a permit from the United States or the European Union to trade with Russia.
Speaking at a meeting of the Russian Energy Ministry, Rosneft said a viable option on the table was to repeal a law that imposes stiff restrictions on corporate purchases and effectively stands in the way of a direct contact with the supplier, according to the Vesti newspaper’s source in the know.
The government is also allowed to control purchases of state-controlled companies. The majority of Rosneft shares are owned by the state.
Rosneft said that the majority of equipment in the US-EU sanctions blacklist was not critical to the project and could be imported from elsewhere.
Last week, the United States and the European Union announced the third round of economic sanctions against Russia, adding Rosneft to their blacklist.
The EU sanctions package prohibits exporting to Russia technologies and equipment linked to deep water and Arctic oil exploration and production, as well as to shale-oil projects.
The United States also introduced sanctions banning future contracts on supplying Russia with technologies and equipment used for hydrocarbon development.
