Like BP, Norway’s Equinor and France’s TotalEnergies, Shell’s leadership decided that the war with Ukraine made it impossible to maintain its business in Russia.
Sinead Gorman, the new chief financial officer of Royal Dutch Shell, arrives at her position at a delicate time. The British-Dutch energy giant, which recently relocated to London from The Netherlands, has decided to exit all of its Russian operations.
Like BP, Norway’s Equinor and France’s TotalEnergies, Shell’s leadership decided that the war with Ukraine made it impossible to maintain its business in Russia. Gorman, who is replacing departing CFO Jessica Uhl, faces the task of ending the company’s involvement in the Sakhalin-2 project, a joint venture with Gazprom, Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Shell holds a 27.5% stake in Sakhalin, which gives the group about 3.2 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year. The company also needs to exit its share of Salym Petroleum, another Gazprom joint venture, and its interest in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
Uhl, who spent five years at the helm of Shell’s finance department and 18 years with the company, is well versed in the Russian business. But she could not move to England due to family reasons. Therefore, corporate veteran Gorman, who joined the company in 1999, will write the final note on Shell’s involvement in Russia.
A University of Oxford graduate, Gorman began her career as a civil engineer. She also has a master’s degree in finance from the London Business School and has held several finance roles at Shell.
When this chapter is closed, Gorman can spend more time working on Shell’s cleaner-energy program, a focus for investors favoring environmental goals. The company is seeking permits in Brazil to develop its first offshore wind farms and plans to add to six other projects worldwide that will generate 17 gigawatts of electricity.
