From CNN
(CNN)Nine European and US fossil fuel companies have paid a collective $15.8 billion to Russia in various forms of taxes and fees since the country annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a group of NGOs said Thursday.
The groups, Global Witness, Greenpeace USA and Oil Change International, used data from the Oslo-based Rystad Energy, an independent energy research firm, to calculate how much money oil and gas companies based in North America and Europe had sent to the Russian state. They looked only at companies with exploration and production operations in Russia.
The data was shared amid criticisms that the West’s purchases of Russian coal, oil and gas — which are largely state-owned assets — have helped fund Russia’s war in Ukraine. These payments underscore how much capital Western energy companies that chose to continue operating in Russia after Crimea was annexed have transferred to the state.
The groups looked at royalties, export duties, bonuses, taxes and fees, as well as “government profit oil,” which includes the value of any actual oil that the companies may have given to Russia to come up with the $15.8 billion figure.
