According to records, Russian energy giant Gazprom made €45 million (£39 million) from its North Sea gas production last year. Since 2020, Gazprom has been generating gas from the Sillimanite field, which is located in Dutch and UK waters.

The Liberal Democrats’ leader, Sir Ed Davey, declared that “Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine” was being supported by gas coming from UK territory, calling this “totally unacceptable”.

There would be “ratchet up economic pressure” on Russia, the government declared.

200 kilometres off the coast of the Netherlands, the German corporation Wintershall and the Russian enterprise Gazprom jointly run the Sillimanite field. In the Netherlands, gas produced in the field is transported ashore.

The US, the UK, and the EU have imposed severe economic penalties to limit Russia’s ability to profit from oil exports, aiming to limit its capacity to fund its conflict in Ukraine, even though there is no indication that the agreement is illegal.

The UK government has imposed penalties on several Gazprom executives, including CEO Alexei Miller, but not on the company itself. Although the company’s pipeline gas supplies to continental Europe have significantly decreased since the start of the conflict, they still exist.

According to financial statements, the Russian energy giant’s subsidiary, Gazprom International UK, had a pre-tax profit of €45 million in 2022 and distributed a €41 million dividend to its Dutch direct owner, Gazprom International Projects BV.

In June of this year, a further payout of €1.7 million was paid.

The ultimate owner of the business is Moscow-based PJSC Gazprom.

According to the state news agency TASS, Gazprom is mostly controlled by the Russian state and is the biggest taxpayer in the nation, giving the government $80 billion annually. Additionally, it has enlisted and funded its own militias to fight on the front lines in Ukraine.

“Totally unacceptable that gas taken from UK territory is bolstering the coffers of Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine,” declared Sir Ed, a former energy secretary.

It was dubbed “an indictment of the UK’s approach to Russian oil and gas” by the advocacy group Global Witness.

“Whilst the government decries the war, it’s absurd to allow the subsidiary of a Russian state enterprise which has its own militia fighting in Ukraine to enrich Putin’s regime from the North Sea,” it added.

A spokesperson for the government said that we would “continue to work alongside our partners to deny Russia access to any of our goods or technologies that it could use in its war machine, restricting Russia’s ability to fight a 21st century war” .

“Putin and his supporters must – and will – pay the price for their illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he added.

“We will continue to ratchet up economic pressure and come down hard on all emerging forms of circumvention until Ukraine prevails and peace is secured.”

The corporation owed the Dutch and UK governments a total of €29 million in taxes. This includes €5 million under the Dutch equivalent and €4 million under the UK windfall tax, which was levied on energy corporations when prices spiked following the conflict in Ukraine.

Sales outside of the UK account for all of Gazprom International UK’s revenue, according to the records. According to the business’s accounts, in September of this year, it terminated its contract with Wintershall and replaced it with one to sell petrol to Gunvor, a trading company based in Switzerland.

When Gazprom’s parent company was on the verge of bankruptcy last year, the German government nationalised the corporation’s energy supply business in the UK, which served thousands of corporate clients. The new name for it is SEFE Energy.

(Adapted from BBC.com)