Western sanctions not to hurt operations of Russia’s Gazprom

MOSCOW, Jun 26 (PRIME) -- Western sanctions blocking access of Russian companies to certain technologies will not have a significant impact on gas giant Gazprom’s operations as it purchases most of equipment at the domestic market, Dmitry Lyugai, a member of the company’s management board, said Friday during a shareholder meeting.

“Gazprom had organized work on substituting imported products with domestic ones, equal in technical characteristics and consumer attributes, long before sanctions were imposed and has been carrying it out ever since. As a result, the share of Russian products in Gazprom’s purchases reached 87% in 2011, and has been staying at 93–94% since 2012,” Lyugai said.

“In general, I would like to say that if Western sanctions do provide a negative impact on the company’s operations, then this impact will be of a short-term character, ” he added.

In 2014, the U.S. and the E.U. introduced sanctions against Russia due to its role in the Ukrainian crisis, including banning provision of equipment and services for deep-sea exploration and production of oil, works in the Arctic and development of shale oil fields to Russian companies.

Earlier in June, the E.U. decided to extend anti-Russian sanctions until January 31, 2016.

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