Sanctions-Proof Oil Rig Thwarts U.S. Policy From Cuba to Russia - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-19/sanctions-proof-oil-rig-thwarts-u-s-policy-from-cuba-to-russia
The Scarabeo 9 platform
Photographer: Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Getty Images
The oil rig was built mostly in China and drilled its first well in Cuba. Now it’s delivering a victory for Russia in its fight against U.S. sanctions.
Italian oil giant Eni SpA and Russia’s state-controlled Rosneft PJSC are using the Scarabeo 9 ultra-deepwater rig to drill in water more than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) deep in the Black Sea. It’s the first well drilled by a western company at a Russian oil project that falls squarely under U.S. sanctions imposed on the sector in 2014.
For Vladimir Putin, it’s a second energy-sector victory in a little over a week after the $27 billion Yamal liquefied natural gas project started shipping cargoes despite U.S. sanctions against its controlling shareholder.
“It is important not because of the size, but from a geopolitical perspective it is key,” said Alejandro Demichelis, director at boutique investment bank Hannam & Partners. “Eni and the Italians in general have been closer to Russia than they have been to the U.S., at least in terms of oil and gas. They have always been on Putin’s side to solve problems.”
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“The Scarabeo 9 is one of the very few units in the industry which is using a technology which is not an American one,” Saipem’s then CEO Pietro Franco Tali told investors before its maiden voyage to Cuba.