American companies may be banned from participating in projects related to oil production in Russia. With such an offer, the representative of the House of Representatives from the Democratic Party Maxine Waters.
Waters introduced a bill to Congress prohibiting making exceptions to the anti-Russian sanctions regime for oil projects, RT reports.. She proposed the following provision in the law: "To prohibit US citizens from obtaining licenses and other permits for participation in projects related to the extraction of oil by deep-sea drilling (including on the Arctic shelf) or from shale formations, if the result can be oil production in the territory The Russian Federation or in marine areas controlled by it ".
The issuance of permits for US companies to work on drilling in Russia was suspended under the previous US President Barack Obama. Concern ExxonMobil, which has common projects with Rosneft, appealed to both the former and current administration of the White House with a request to remove these restrictions, but in both cases it was refused.
Experts believe that the Waters bill is dictated by the desire of Congress to strike at the reputation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who formerly headed ExxonMobil. Democrats suspect that the head of the State Department can influence the administration's decision on sanctions. However, he has repeatedly stated that he is not going to lobby for the abolition of anti-Russian restrictions, since he sees no reason to withdraw them.
Political scientist Andrei Manoilo believes that although Tillerson left the post of ExxonMobil chief, he retained his informal influence in the company. In addition, it was he who started the projects with Russia. "Realizing that Tillerson is a key player in Trump's team, Democrats are trying to tickle his nerves," the expert said.. However, the Democratic Party does not have a majority either in the upper or lower chamber of the Congress, and therefore such a bill may face serious opposition.
The cooperation of ExxonMobil and Rosneft began in 2012. The American concern got the right to explore oil reserves in the water area of ??the Russian Arctic, the right to drill with new technology in Siberia and the opportunity to conduct exploratory drilling in the Black Sea. After the introduction of sanctions, the companies were allowed to finish the projects they started, after which the cooperation was frozen. The US Justice Department has suspended the issuance of drilling permits to all companies, including ExxonMobil. In 2015 year. Representatives of the concern reported that losses due to sanctions could reach $ 1 billion. According to the Minister of Energy of Russia Alexander Novak, from the measures taken in the United States, American companies were more affected.
Arctic exploration and drilling have great potential. According to the US Geological Survey, on the Arctic shelf lies 13% of the world's oil reserves. Today, three quarters of the territory of this macroregion is controlled by Canada and Russia. The recovered explored reserves of the Russian part of the shelf are estimated at 585 million tons, gas reserves of 10.5 billion cubic meters. It is planned that by 2030. The Russian Arctic will produce about 60 million tons of oil. However, this is possible only in the case of favorable price conjuncture:
the development of this sector is very expensive, and it is only reasonable to extract oil in the north if the price is $ 80-100 per barrel.
According to other estimates, about 90% of all promising hydrocarbon resources are located in Russia, and about half of them are on the Russian Arctic shelf. In total, the oil potential of the Russian Arctic is estimated by experts at 100 billion tons. By forbidding their companies to participate in oil Arctic projects, US authorities steal huge profits from them and in fact deprive the future of the American oil and gas industry.