Kyiv believes that Shell should share a billion dollars with Ukraine. The money is the windfall that the company could make from potential sales of its assets in Russia.
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According to a letter sent by Oleg Ustenko, adviser to the President of Ukraine on economic issues, to the head of the company Vael Sawan, the details of which were reviewed by Politico, Kiev would like Shell to share with him the income that it can receive if Russia buys back its share of the total companies for the development of mineral reserves in Siberia.
This is blood money,” writes Ustenko, “and we urge Shell to use sales revenues or dividends to help the victims of the war, the war that was paid for by these assets.
We are talking about a joint project to develop oil and gas fields in the Far East Sakhalin-2, in which Shell’s share is 27.5%.
After the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Shell announced that it was withdrawing from the Russian market and writing off assets and investments in Russia for $5 billion.
Shell declined to comment, citing that it is not yet doing business in Russia or any negotiations to sell its stake in the Sakhalin-2 project, so it cannot talk about what could happen with the proceeds from such a sale.
We understand that now Shell may have a choice whether or not to accept such our offer,” Ustenko admits in a letter, recalling the moral responsibility that, in his opinion, should push the company to transfer this money to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, according to the NGO Global Witness, a billion dollars is only about a tenth of the total amount needed to restore Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which suffered from Russian strikes.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.