The company ExxonMobil asks the US Department of Justice to make for it an exception in US sanctions against Russia and allow the resumption of joint drilling with Rosneft in several regions.

This is reported with reference to own sources, writes a loyal to the Republican Party edition of the Wall Street Journal, adding that such works are prohibited by sanctions that were imposed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

ExxonMobil filed an application with the US Department of Justice in 2015 with a request to allow it to resume development of deposits in the Black Sea. But she was denied. But in February former oil company CEO Rex Tillerson became Secretary of State. And in March ExxonMobil again asked to make an exception for it.

At the same time, the State Department told the publication that Tillerson would within two years distance himself from any issues related to ExxonMobil and would not participate in making any government decisions that relate to his former company.

US sanctions against Russia have frozen major projects that ExxonMobil, under the leadership of Tillerson, agreed with Rosneft in 2012. We are talking about the joint development of oil fields in the Arctic, drilling with the use of modern technologies in Siberia, as well as joint exploration in the Black Sea.

In 2014, the US government has already made exemptions for ExxonMobil from the sanctions regime, allowing it to complete drilling operations in the Russian Arctic. Then Tillerson and other company executives convinced Washington that it was dangerous to leave work unfinished. The Department of Justice agreed. But in October, when the drilling was completed, ExxonMobil stopped participating in a joint project with Russia.

Now ExxonMobil is seeking concessions from the US Department of Justice, arguing that the EU sanctions against Russia do not prohibit its competitors from working with the Russian Federation. Therefore, the American company is afraid that the Norwegian Statoil and the Italian Eni will simply drive it out of the Black Sea region.

Recall that recently during a visit to Russia Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed in the Kremlin Ukraine, without mentioning the issue of sanctions. In addition, at a meeting of G7 foreign ministers, representatives of the United States and Great Britain offered to impose new restrictions against the Russian Federation for its support of the regime of Beshar Assad in Syria, which used chemical weapons against civilians. However, G7 foreign ministers supported the extension of the current sanctions against Russia, but did not dare to introduce new ones.