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Italy's Eni to Pull Out of Russia-Turkey Pipeline

The logo on the headquarters of Italian oil and gas company Eni in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, Italy, Oct. 27, 2017. (AFP Photo)
The logo on the headquarters of Italian oil and gas company Eni in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, Italy, Oct. 27, 2017. (AFP Photo)
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Italy's Eni to Pull Out of Russia-Turkey Pipeline

The logo on the headquarters of Italian oil and gas company Eni in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, Italy, Oct. 27, 2017. (AFP Photo)
The logo on the headquarters of Italian oil and gas company Eni in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, Italy, Oct. 27, 2017. (AFP Photo)

Italian oil giant Eni said Tuesday it would withdraw from the Blue Stream gas pipeline linking Russia to Turkey, in which it has a 50 percent stake.

"Eni intends to sell its stake" in Blue Stream, a company spokesman said, following moves by rivals BP and Shell to divest from Russia-linked projects after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

The company controls the gas pipeline -- which links the two countries via the Black Sea -- equally with Russian energy giant Gazprom.

"Eni's current presence in Russia is marginal" and joint ventures with Russian energy giant Rosneft linked to exploration licenses in the Arctic "have already been frozen for years" due to sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014, the spokesman said.

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, triggering a wave of international condemnation and Western economic sanctions against Moscow, AFP said.

Shell announced on Monday it would sell its stake in all joint ventures with Gazprom, after Russia launched the operation.

That included its 27.5 percent share in the oil and gas project Sakhalin-2, on Sakhalin island in Russia's far east.

It would also end its 50 percent interests in the Salym oilfield development in western Siberia, and the Gydan exploration project in the Gydan peninsula, in northwest Siberia.

On Sunday, BP announced it was pulling its 19.75 percent stake in Rosneft, and chief executive Bernard Looney said he was resigning from the Russian company's board with immediate effect.

BP shares slumped on Monday, wiping billions of dollars from the company's value.

French energy giant TotalEnergies on Tuesday announced it would no longer provide capital for new projects in Russia but would not withdraw from current projects in which it was invested.

Russia is preparing a presidential decree aimed at preventing foreign investment exiting the country, its prime minister said Tuesday, after Moscow was hit by the barrage of sanctions.

"To enable businesses to make informed decisions, a draft presidential decree has been prepared to introduce temporary restrictions on exiting Russian assets," Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said.

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UN Aid Chief Vows 'Ruthlessness' to Prioritize Spending, Seeks $47 Billion

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
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UN Aid Chief Vows 'Ruthlessness' to Prioritize Spending, Seeks $47 Billion

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

The new head of the UN humanitarian aid agency says it will be “ruthless” when prioritizing how to spend money, a nod to challenges in fundraising for civilians in war zones like Gaza, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.

Tom Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who took up the UN post last month, said his agency is asking for less money in 2025 than this year. He said it wants to show "we will focus and target the resources we have,” even as crises grow more numerous, intense and long-lasting.

His agency, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on Wednesday issued its global appeal for 2025, seeking $47 billion to help 190 million people in 32 countries — though it estimates 305 million worldwide need help.
“The world is on fire, and this is how we put it out,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The office and many other aid groups, including the international Red Cross, have seen donations shrink in recent years for longtime trouble spots like Syria, South Sudan, the Middle East and Congo and newer ones like Ukraine and Sudan. Aid access has been difficult in some places, especially Sudan and Gaza.
The office's appeal for $50 billion for this year was only 43% fulfilled as of last month. One consequence of that shortfall was a 80% reduction in food aid for Syria, which has seen a sudden escalation in fighting in recent days, The Associated Press reported.
Such funds go to UN agencies and more than 1,500 partner organizations.
The biggest asks for 2025 are for Syria — a total of $8.7 billion for needs both within the country and for neighbors that have taken in Syrian refugees — as well as Sudan at a total of $6 billion, the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” at $4 billion, Ukraine at about $3.3 billion and Congo at nearly $3.2 billion.
Fletcher said his office needs to be “ruthless” in choosing to reach people most in need.
“I choose that word carefully, because it's a judgement call — that ruthlessness — about prioritizing where the funding goes and where we can have the greatest impact," he said. “It's a recognition that we have struggled in previous years to raise the money we need.”
In response to questions about how much President-elect Donald Trump of the United States — the UN's biggest single donor — will spend on humanitarian aid, Fletcher said he expects to spend “a lot of time” in Washington over the next few months to talk with the new administration.
“America is very much on our minds at the moment," he said, acknowledging some governments “will be more questioning of what the United Nations does and less ideologically supportive of this humanitarian effort” laid out in the new report.
This year has been the deadliest on record for humanitarians and UN staff, largely due to the Middle East conflict triggered by Palestinian militants' deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel.