Shell Says It Will Quit Buying Oil and Gas From Russia

Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, said Tuesday it would begin withdrawing from its involvement “in all Russian hydrocarbons,” including an immediate halt to all spot purchases of Russian crude and the shuttering of its service stations in the country.

The announcement comes just days after Shell was criticized for purchasing a tanker of Russian crude at a sharp discount. The company had said it was forced to make the purchase because it was unable to find alternative sources of oil for its customers, and that it would donate profits from the purchase to humanitarian causes.

The decision to purchase the fuel “was not the right one and we are sorry,” Ben van Beurden, the chief executive of Shell, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Shell said it was changing its crude oil supply chain to cut out Russian volumes, but the move could take weeks to complete. The process of shutting the service stations and quitting aviation fuel sales in Russia would begin immediately, the company said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/business/shell-oil-russia-ukraine.html