BRASILIA, July 17 (RIA Novosti) - Igor Sechin, the president of Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, on Thursday lashed out at the US over its new sanctions, saying they were ungrounded, illegitimate and likely to backfire.
“The decision to add the Rosneft company to the sanctions list is ungrounded, biased and illegitimate due to the company’s playing no role in the Ukrainian crisis,” Sechin said.
“This move will hurt the company’s American shareholders registered in the United States and American banks that have loan agreements with us,” he noted.
He added however that Rosneft would continue to work with ExxonMobil, a US-based oil and gas corporation, to develop the shelf of the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
“We are now holding consultations with ExxonMobil lawyers. As a preliminary statement, I can say this decision [sanctions] won’t affect the ongoing implementation of our projects,” the Rosneft chief argued.
Sechin stressed the new sanctions might have a broad interpretation that will be studied by the oil company’s lawyers to look for ways to minimize possible financial risks.
