Equinor has a long history of attempting to get involved in the Russian petroleum sector. Many partnerships have been entered, but the company has never had a major success in Russia. It partnered with Gazprom and Total on the Shtokman project in the Barents Sea, but this was shelved due to high costs and low gas prices. It then shifted from partnership with Gazprom to Rosneft, and in the two companies, have drilled for oil in several areas of Russia, again without any major finds. After the introduction of sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, Equinor has kept a much lower public profile on its Russian activities while continuing largely as before.