The world’s biggest oilfield services company is expanding in Russia following the exit of its main western rivals since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
SLB, the Houston-based company formerly known as Schlumberger, made a public commitment in July 2023 to halt “shipments of products and technology into Russia” from its global facilities. Russian customs filings show that after this ban was imposed, such imports slowed to a stop by the start of September.
But filings show the company also continued to import materials from other sources, bringing in $17.5mn of equipment between August and December 2023, the most recent date of available records. Of this, $2.2mn was declared as having been originally manufactured by SLB or its subsidiaries.