UK fails to deter RWE North Sea sale

摘要

German utility RWE closed the?5.1bn ($5.6bn)sale of its upstream subsidiary RWE Dea to Russian firm L1 Energy on 2 March in defiance of the UK govern-ment.The UK is concerned that RWE Dea’s 12 producing North Sea natural gas fields may have to shut down if L1 Energy is placed under sanctions as part of the US and Europe’s standoff with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.RWE and L1 Energy have come up with a plan to insulate the North Sea assets from future sanctions,involving the new Russian owners keeping the UK fields separate from the rest of the business.