Angus firm admits supplying equipment to Russia during trade ban

An oil and gas firm has admitted shipping equipment from Angus to Russia months after sanctions were announced in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

The US-headquartered Baker Hughes confirmed it had shipped oil and gas equipment from its operations in Montrose to a Russian customer in June 2022.

This was months after the UK Government ramped up sanctions against state in an effort to “starve Putin’s war machine”.

Investigative news website the Ferret and The Herald also highlighted the shipment from Bakers’ Angus facilities to Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek for an Arctic LNG project came weeks after the Scottish Government had called on businesses to stop trading with Russia on 3 March 2022.

Baker Hughes, employs hundreds of people across two sites in Montrose.

It received £4.9 million in grant funding from the Scottish Government as to fund a £31m subsea manufacturing operation in the Angus town, which opened in 2019.

Baker Hughes statement on Russia

Baker Hughes explained that the order shipped out in June was part of a deal struck in 2019 before Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine was launched.

A spokesperson said: “As we first stated in March 2022, Baker Hughes condemns violence, and the war in Ukraine is of grave concern.

“The order that was shipped from Montrose was part of a wider contract that was booked in 2019 and covered many pieces of equipment over multiple phases.

“As is common with long-cycle oil field equipment, many of those pieces of equipment can take up to two years to design, procure, manufacture and supply.

“The £4.9m of Scottish Enterprise funding in question was first provided to Baker Hughes in 2019 as part of the expansion of our Montrose facility.

“The funding has supported projects exported to multiple countries over multiple years, and it has not been allocated toward any specific project.”

In a statement, the firm added it had suspended any new investments in Russian operations from March 2022.

The statement added: “Our last shipment out of Montrose was in June 2022, and we halted all work supported by Scottish operations in July 2022.”

More than 100 workers carried out strikes at the Montrose factories last year over new pay terms.