The European Union (EU) and the United States adopted, since March 2014, three stages of sanctions against Russia. The third stage of these sanctions target directly Russia's energy sector, particularly the oil companies, both those which are state- and private-owned. This paper aims at analyzing the main consequences of the sanctions whose subject are Russia's oil companies. The paper argues that the sanctions may have, on short and medium term, a range of significant consequences, such as cancellation of important oil projects, difficulties in financing large-scale projects, reduction of budget revenues and the turn of Russian oil companies toward eastward. Nonetheless, the medium term consequences depend on EU's and United States' will to last the sanctions.
Madalina Sisu Vicari is a PhD candidate focussing on the influence of Ukraine's and Turkey's geopolitics of energy on their relations with EU, and a researcher within The Center for International Relations Studies (CEFIR) of University of Liège.