Ukraine Crisis | Shell To Stop Buying Oil & Gas From Russia, To Close Service Stations: Report

The report also stated that Shell will stop buying Russian crude oil immediately on the spot market and not renew term contracts with Moscow. 

New Delhi: Energy giant Shell on Tuesday announced that it will stop buying Russian oil, natural gas and shut down its service stations in the country in view of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, news agency Associated Press reported. 

According to the report, Shell will also shut down aviation fuels and other operations in the country. The company also said that it withdraw from all Russian hydrocarbons, including crude oil, petroleum products, natural gas and liquefied natural gas "in a phased manner".

The report also stated that Shell will stop buying Russian crude oil immediately on the spot market and not renew term contracts with Moscow. 

The energy major will also alter its crude oil supply chain mechanism to remove Russian supplies. However, it said this could take weeks to complete and would lead to reduced throughput at some of its refineries.

The move comes a week after Shell decided to exit its joint ventures with Russian state energy firm Gazprom. 

"We are acutely aware that our decision last week to purchase a cargo of Russian crude oil to be refined into products like petrol and diesel — despite being made with security of supplies at the forefront of our thinking — was not the right one and we are sorry," AP quoted Shell CEO Ben van Beurden as saying.

"As we have already said, we will commit profits from the limited, remaining amounts of Russian oil we will process to a dedicated fund," Beurden said further.

Earlier this week, Shell said that it will put profits from any Russian oil it purchases into a fund that will go towards humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Last week, bought a cargo of Russian crude oil at a record low discount, the first such trade since Russia invaded Ukraine last week. Though deal did not violate Western sanctions on Moscow, it was widely criticised by Ukraine.

"I am told Shell discreetly bought some Russian oil yesterday. One question to @Shell: doesn't Russian oil smell (of) Ukrainian blood for you?," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote in a tweet.

Reacting to the response from Ukraine, Shell said that it would choose alternatives to Russian oil wherever possible, but this could not happen overnight because of how significant Russia is to global supply.

(With inputs from Associated Press.)