© Reuters/Tatyana MakeyevaRussian Energy Minister Alexander Novak: Russia will engage in O&G projects with countries not imposing sanctions.
The sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis have targeted the delivery of oil technology, goods and services, aiming to make it harder for Moscow to access new oil sources.
"If (Western) companies decide for themselves not to take part in organizing investment projects in the long term, we will invite investors from countries which have not imposed sanctions against us and our oil and gas companies," Novak was quoted as saying in response to a question at a meeting with students.
Russia, the world's biggest energy exporter, relies on oil and gas exports for about half its federal budget. The sanctions affect its offshore exploration in the Arctic and development of the hard-to-recover oil deposits.
U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil has had to suspend work on offshore exploration in the Arctic with Russian oil producer Rosneft and Royal Dutch Shell has suspended development of hard-to-recover oil in Russia's Bazhenov formation with Gazprom Neft.
Rosneft has agreed to deepen cooperation with China National Petroleum Corporation, including in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and possibly LNG supplies to China.
Comment: The Western elites have been so keen to undermine Russia, that they have lost all sense of reason. Russia is by no means isolated, and countries imposing sanctions have seen their economies take hits that are directly related to these sanctions. Nonetheless, the West continues to march to this same drum beat, wishfully thinking it can eventually create the reality it desires. Not so bright, eh?