OilPrice.com By David Messler
- The war in Ukraine has sparked an exodus from Russia, and some of the biggest oil companies in the world are writing down billions of dollars in assets.
- Big Oil, particularly BP, has been hit hard, and the next quarterly financial reports may drive stock prices even lower.
- Oilfield service companies have not escaped the fallout, either, though more diverse exposure globally may help them mitigate the financial impact.
Executing a plan some eight years in the making, Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February 2022. So savage, and indiscriminate was this attack that comparisons with the worst of World War II are beginning to be made in the non-stop press coverage. The Western world, recoiling in horror at the sight of bombed-out buildings and a civilian exodus that quickly swelled into the millions, soon sought to punish Russia by levying sanctions designed to cripple the Russian economy. After the first few days, it became apparent that the Ukrainians were going to mount a credible defense, and the Russian goal of a lighting strike to replace the government in Kyiv was not going to be realized. This war was going to drag on. As the images of what soon came to be called-war crimes piled up, Western companies doing business in Russia soon found that it was impossible to continue this practice and began pulling out of the country.
