International sponsor of war: Weatherford International paid over $15 million in taxes to the Russian budget

16 February 06:06

The Irish-American company Weatherford International does not stop its operations in Russia, continuing to pay millions of US dollars in taxes and provide technological capabilities to the aggressor country’s oil industry. This has led to the company’s inclusion in the list of international sponsors of the war, reports with reference to the NACP.

Weatherford International specialises in the manufacture and supply of oilfield equipment and services for oil and gas companies. The company has been operating in Russia for 16 years, creating more than 2,500 jobs and maintaining service facilities and bases in the country.

Weatherford is represented in Russia through Weatherford Holdings (Rus) LLC, Weatherford LLC and Weatherford Business Service LLC. In 2022, these companies together paid more than USD 15 million in taxes to the Russian budget.

Among Weatherford’s partners in Russia is the well-known oil company Rosneft, which remains the main customer of the company’s services.

In addition, the company continues to participate in import and export operations with Russia. During the period from 24 February 2022 to 31 December 2023, it imported goods worth almost USD 1.5 million. These included materials and spare parts for the oil and gas industry (fittings, valves, shafts, gaskets, plastic products, bearings).

Weatherford intends to continue fulfilling existing contracts and sign new agreements with customers in Russia. In its reporting, Weatherford promised to fulfil its contractual obligations, taking into account international sanctions. The company has successfully rebuilt its equipment supply channels after the civilised world imposed sanctions on Russia, replacing suppliers with Russian or other foreign companies. This demonstrates not only the company’s economic and technological support for the aggressor, but also its ideological support.

The Ukrainian representative office of the global company, Weatherford Ukraine LLC, has had three directors over the past eight years: in 2016, Dmytro Solnyshkin was replaced by Natalia Rudevych (who later joined Oleksandr Romanyuk at Ukrgazvydobuvannya, and after a staff purge at the state-owned company, joined the international union of engineers SPE in Ukraine), and since 2020, Oleksandr Tertychenko has been running the company.

With the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Weatherford reduced its presence in the Ukrainian market by not entering into contracts with state-owned companies. However, in 2023-2024, Weatherford Ukraine signed a number of service agreements with Ukrgasvydobuvannya and Ukrnafta for a total of over UAH 490 million (including VAT).

A source at Ukrgasvydobuvannya told Naftogaz that the state-owned company will continue to pay for Weatherford’s services until the National Security and Defence Council makes a decision.

“The NAPC’s message is advisory, rather a reputational risk,” the source said,

– the source said.

Остафійчук Ярослав
Editor