WASHINGTON, February 19. /TASS/. The United States’ sanctions imposed over the situation in Ukraine and banning US businesses to cooperate with a number of Russian companies and banks are not applicable to foreign affiliates of US corporations, an official representative of the United States Department of the Treasury told TASS on Wednesday.
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The representative was asked to comment on Bloomberg’s publication that foreign affiliates of US’ biggest oil and gas service sector companies Schlumberger and Baker Hughes had recently taken part in tender bids on supplies of materials and services for oil production in the Russian Arctic.
The United States’ sanctions imposed in September 2014 prohibit American companies to take part in such projects. The US blacklist of Russian companies subject to sanctions include five Russian energy sector companies, namely Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, LUKoil, Surgutneftegaz, and Rosneft. There companies may not obtain goods, services and technologies for oil production at deep-water sections, on the Arctic shelf or at shale layers from US companies. Financial and economic sanctions were also imposed on a number of Russian banks and defense-sector companies.
The representative of the US Department of the Treasury confirmed that the anti-Russian sanctions are not applicable to foreign affiliates of American companies, which means that such affiliates can have business relations with Russian partners, including from the banking and energy sectors.
In this connection, Bloomberg noted that such state of things inevitably brings into question the efficiency of the US sanctions. The US Department of the Treasury official however said her department is keeping a close eye on any attempts to violate laws but refused comment on the activities of individual US companies in Russia.
