Russian ruble drops to 12-month low as Shell pulls out of Sakhalin-2 oil and gas field project

For the first time since April 15, 2022, the Russian ruble dropped against the dollar to the rate of 81 rubles during trading on Russia’s largest exchange. As of 3.30 p.m. Kyiv time, the ruble had rebounded to 79.4961. The euro was valued at 87.0954 rubles.

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Bloomberg attributes the fall of the Russian currency to Shell's sale of its stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas field development project and subsequent approval of the transfer of the income from the sale abroad.

In pre-war times, the Russian foreign exchange market would hardly have noticed such an outflow, as its daily turnover was five times higher.

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However, since then, international sanctions have turned it into a "backwater" that is cut off from the global financial system, and with its liquidity drying up.

As Russian media recently reported, oil giant Shell may be able to pull out of Russia's Sakhalin-2 project while still keeping some of it money. Leonid Mikhelson, CEO of Russia's Novatek, has secured Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's consent to pay the oil giant RUR 95 billion ($1.2 billion) for its stake in the project.

Last September, it was reported that Shell was leaving the major Russian project Sakhalin-2 empty-handed, as the energy giant refused to buy a stake in the new operator of the Sakhalin-2 project.

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