The oil and gas company ExxonMobil has decided to leave several joint exploration and research ventures with the Russian company Rosneft, citing Western sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014. The move will reportedly result in a fourth quarter tax loss of US$200m.
The two companies inked an exploration partnership in 2012 with plans to invest US$500m for the development of Russia's Arctic and Black Sea oil reserves. The US government fined ExxonMobil US$2m in 2014 for signing the joint venture just after the sanctions were imposed. Still ExxonMobil continued to drill in Russia's Arctic regions after it. The projects from which ExxonMobil will retire are estimated to total 12.3 Gt of oil and 15.2 tcf (around 430 bcm) of gas; however, ExxonMobil's exit will not affect the Sakhalin-1 project, which operates under the framework of a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) and has a current daily output of 200,000 bbl/d.
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