US Drilling Firm Sending Russia-Related Disclosure to OFAC
A Texas-headquartered offshore drilling company is filing a voluntary disclosure with the Office of Foreign Assets Control after its former Russian subsidiary may have breached U.S. sanctions, according to corporate filings.
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Parker Wellbore, also known as Parker Drilling, plans to inform OFAC that its then-Russian subsidiary may have made payments to sanctioned Russian companies in 2022. The disclosure was revealed in an Oct. 31 SEC filing by Nabors Industries, a multinational energy technology company, which announced earlier in October it planned to acquire Parker Wellbore in a bid to expand its drilling rig business.
Nabors said it’s awaiting to see how OFAC responds to Parker Wellbore’s voluntary disclosure. The firm said Parker Wellbore’s Russian subsidiary, Sakhalin Drilling Services, which it divested from in 2022 to “ensure compliance with U.S. sanctions,” may have “wired payroll and other related payments” to the accounts of employees and independent contractors at “certain sanctioned Russian financial institutions.” Nabors said Parker Wellbore believed those transactions were authorized at the time by the Treasury Department’s Russia-related General License 8.
That license, which is still active after being renewed last week, authorizes certain energy-related transactions with a list of sanctioned Russian entities (see 2410300018).
Nabors also said one of the Parker Wellbore subsidiaries may have made a payment to an account associated with Promsvyazbank PJSC, a Russian financial institution that was sanctioned by OFAC in 2022 and which isn’t covered by the general license.
Both Nabors and Parker Wellbore are waiting to see whether OFAC “interprets GL8 differently than” how Parker Wellbore thought it applied, or whether the firm receives a subpoena from OFAC or DOJ.
Nabors, Parker Wellbore and the Treasury Department didn't respond to requests for comment.