16 August 2024

...SLB, the Houston-based company formerly known as Schlumberger, has signed new contracts and recruited hundreds of staff in the country even after its two largest US rivals, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, both sold their Russian businesses to local managers in 2022.

...Documents obtained by non-profit group Global Witness and seen by the Financial Times show that in December SLB’s Russian business signed a contract with the Russian oil and gas institute Vnigni, which commits the company to help it build models of oil and gas deposits that can be used to develop projects.

The FT has identified more than 1,000 job advertisements posted by the company since December, seeking roles that range from drivers to chemists and geologists. Benefits on offer range from lunch at work and access to sports facilities to participation in discounted share schemes.

Searches of Russian trademark and corporate databases by the FT show SLB Russian subsidiaries registered two new trademarks in July.

SLB has been upfront that it has no plans to leave Russia. But in July 2023 the company said it was “halting shipments of products and technology into Russia from all SLB facilities worldwide in response to the continued expansion of international sanctions”.

Russian customs filings show that after this ban was imposed, such imports slowed to a stop by the start of September.

But filings show the company also continued to import materials from other sources, bringing in $17.5mn of equipment between August and December 2023, the most recent date of available records. Of this, $2.2mn was declared as having been originally manufactured by SLB or its subsidiaries.

SLB declined to comment. A person close to the company said the imports were not “from an SLB facility” and are therefore “consistent with SLB’s public statements and within international sanctions guidelines”...

Human rights groups and the Ukrainian government allege SLB’s work in the country helps to generate billions of dollars of oil revenues to support the Kremlin’s war effort...