U.S. introduces sanctions against Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegas, and all their subsidiaries
MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - The United States has introduced sanctions against two Russian oil extraction companies, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in charge of law enforcement in the sphere of sanctions, said on Friday.
OFAC has issued licenses for winding up operations with Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas and withdrawal from their securities by February 27, 2025, which are traditional in such situations.
Sanctions have also been introduced against a whole group of subsidiaries of Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas. The companies directly stated in the SDN List are Gazprom Neft Moscow Refinery , Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery, Gazprom Neft Shelf, Gazprom Neft Aero, Gazprom Neft Bitumen Materials, Gazprom Marine Bunker, Gazprom Neft Khantos, Gazprom Neft Lubricants Ltd, Gazprom Neft Noyabrsk, Gazprom Neft Orenburg, Gazprom Neft Technological Partnerships, Gazprom Neft Vostok, Gazprom Neft Yamal, Gazprom Neft Zapolyarye, Gazprom Angara, Gazprom Neft Development Gazprom Neft Regional Sales, Gazprom Neft Tajikistan, Gazprom Neft International SA, Gazprom Neft Kazakhstan, Gazprom Neft Asia (Kyrgyzstan), Munay Myrza (Kyrgyzstan), KINEF, Kaliningradnefteprodukt, Kirishiavtoservis, Lengipromneftekhim, Novgorodnefteprodukt, Pskovnefteprodukt, Tvernefteprodukt, and Surgutneftegas.
OFAC said all companies directly or indirectly controlled by Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas are considered to be subjects of blocking sanctions even if their names are not on the list.
The SDN List also includes the Serbian subsidiary of Gazprom Neft, NIS. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke about the risk of introduction of U.S. sanctions against it in late December. In this connection, Belgrade has already started talks with the relevant parties, one of the decisions is the reduction of the Russian share in NIS to a level of less than 50%, he said. NIS is the only company in Serbia that explores and extracts hydrocarbons, it also owns a large oil refinery in Pancevo. The company is dominating on the Serbian oil products market, the chain of NIS fuel stations is also represented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Romania, comprising in total more than 400 stations. Gazprom Neft now owns 50% of NIS, and Gazprom owns 6.15%. Another 29.87% of the shares is owned by Serbia, and the rest is held by minority shareholders.
Besides Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegas and entities affiliated with them, sanctions have been introduced against RN Vankor (operator of Vostok Oil, a flagship project of Rosneft), RusGazAlliance, a joint venture of Gazprom and RusGazDobycha, and UDS Neft (included in UDS Group, operates some sites in the Perm Territory, Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, the Orenburg region, the Saratov region, and the Samara region).