Secret Talks Hint at Exxon's Re-Entry into Russian Oil

A potential return of U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil to Russian operations would be beneficial for the region of Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East and help Russia’s energy sector, Sakhalin’s governor Valery Limarenko has told Reuters.

Ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting in mid-August, Russia and the United States had reportedly discussed Exxon returning to the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas development project. Senior U.S. and Russian officials discussed bilateral energy deals on the sidelines of the talks on reaching a peace agreement in Ukraine in August. The potential energy agreements between the U.S. and Russia were proposed as an incentive for Putin to agree to a peace in Ukraine and a path forward for the United States to ease sanctions on Moscow.

In the weeks following the Trump-Putin summit, no breakthrough has been achieved toward peace and President Trump has again expressed frustration with Putin.

Exxon quit the Sakhalin-1project after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which triggered an exodus of foreign oil firms and service providers.

To coincide with the Trump-Putin meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin amended his decree from 2022 giving full Russian ownership to Sakhlain-1, and opened the door to a return of foreign companies to the oil and gas project.

Back in 2022, Putin signed a decree to seize the Sakhalin-1 project, in which Exxon held a 30% stake.

A potential Exxon return would help Russia’s oil and gas extraction, Limarenko told Reuters.

“Look, it's important that they want to return,” the governor added.

“We need to develop further and in this sense, it would be more efficient to develop further jointly,” Limarenko told Reuters.

Senior executives from Exxon discussed a potential return to the Sakhalin-1 project in secret talks with Russia’s oil giant Rosneft earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, quoting sources with knowledge of the talks.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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