A Shell service station in California. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0The multinational gas company Shell announced on Tuesday that it intends to halt the purchase of Russian oil and gas due to the country’s attack on Ukraine.
The company will stop purchasing all Russian hydrocarbons, which includes “crude oil, petroleum products, gas and liquefied natural gas,” according to a statement released on Tuesday.
Shell faced sharp criticism last week when it purchased a large amount of Russian crude oil. In a statement announcing its decision to stop buying Russian oil, Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell apologized for that misstep, saying:
“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.”
Shell to halt purchases of Russian oil
“As we have already said, we will commit profits from the limited, remaining amounts of Russian oil we will process to a dedicated fund. We will work with aid partners and humanitarian agencies over the coming days and weeks to determine where the monies from this fund are best placed to alleviate the terrible consequences that this war is having on the people of Ukraine,” he stated.
