Last year, Gazprom, a big energy company from Russia, made €45 million (£39 million) from a gas field in the North Sea, according to its accounts.
Gazprom has been getting gas from the Sillimanite field, which is in UK and Dutch waters, since 2020.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said it is not okay for gas from the UK to support Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine.
The government said it would increase the pressure on Russia’s economy.
The Sillimanite field is 200km away from the Dutch coast. It is run by Russian company Gazprom and German company Wintershall together. The gas from the field is brought to land in the Netherlands.
The UK, the US and the EU have put strict rules to make it hard for Russia to make money from selling energy. This is to stop them from using that money to pay for the war in Ukraine. There is no proof that this is against the law.
Some top Gazprom leaders, including the boss Alexei Miller, are not allowed to do business with the UK government. But the company Gazprom itself is not affected by these rules. The company still sends gas to Europe through pipelines, but not as much as before the war.
Financial records indicate that Gazprom International UK, a branch of the large Russian energy company, made a profit of €45m before taxes in 2022. They also paid a dividend of €41m to their immediate owner company, Gazprom International Projects BV in the Netherlands. Another payment of €1. 7m was made in June this year.
The company is owned by PJSC Gazprom, which is located in Moscow.
It has also found and paid for its own soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
Sir Ed, who used to be in charge of energy, said it is very wrong that the gas from the UK is helping Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The campaign group Global Witness said it was a sign that the UK’s way of dealing with Russian oil and gas is not good.
“The government is against the war, but it doesn’t make sense to let a company owned by Russia make money from the North Sea while their militia fights in Ukraine,” the statement said.
A government representative said they will keep working with other countries to stop Russia from getting our goods and technology that they could use for their military. This will make it harder for Russia to fight in modern wars.
“Putin and his followers will suffer the consequences for unlawfully invading Ukraine,” he said.
We will keep making it harder for Ukraine’s enemies to make money, and we will punish anyone who tries to find ways around our sanctions. We won’t stop until Ukraine wins and there is peace.
The company had to pay €29 million in taxes. They split the money between the UK and Dutch governments. This means that the energy companies had to pay €4m in taxes in the UK because of high prices after the war in Ukraine, and €5m in taxes in the Netherlands.
The money Gazprom International UK makes comes from selling things to other countries, the records show. The company stopped selling gas to Wintershall in September and started selling it to Gunvor, a Swiss-based trading company, according to the accounts.
Gazprom’s energy supply business in the UK was taken over by the German government last year because its parent company was about to go bankrupt. The business had many business customers. Its new name is SEFE Energy.
Wintershall and Gazprom didn’t answer the BBC’s questions.