Oilfield services giant SLB (NYSE: SLB) has no plans to exit Russia, its CEO has said, two years after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Olivier le Peuch told the FT: “When we decide, we will make it public if we need to. But now, there is no decision yet.”
Baker Hughes and Halliburton, two of its largest rivals, sold their Russia operations in the wake of the Ukraine invasion in 2022 after the US imposed sanctions – with the former taking a $365m charge linked to its exit.
Russia accounted for five percent of SLB’s $33.1bn revenues last year.
Ukraine has placed the company on an “international sponsor of war” blacklist, something SLB strenuously denied.
Mr le Peuch told the FT: “The team over there is operating autonomously and I think is behind the curtain to some extent. We are protecting our assets, that’s our priority. We are protecting our people.”
SLB said it had put controls in place to ban and prevent shipments and support of technology since last July, which Mr le Peuch said would degrade Russia’s ability to develop some of its offshore fields.
The firm said it remains “aligned with the international community in condemning and calling for an end to the war in Ukraine”.
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