BOCHAROV RUCHEY (SOCHI), August 9 (RIA Novosti) — Russia values the level of engagement with the US company ExxonMobil, the country’s cooperation with which will benefit both Russia and the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday.
"ExxonMobil Corporation is our long-standing reliable partner. We value our relations. I am convinced, the joint projects of Rosneft and ExxonMobil, and other companies, would benefit the economies of both nations and will contribute to the strengthening of the global energy situation," Putin said in a video conference from a floating rig in the Kara Sea.
Russia’s oil giant Rosneft and Texas-based ExxonMobil Corporation are due to start drilling in the Kara Sea off Russia’s northern coast in mid-August.
Russia's president spoke from the West Alfa platform, where a new exploration well drilling project is about to be launched. Putin said the project was unique in many ways, as it would use the newest technologies and implement environmental protection measures, prepared on the basis of a number of geological surveys conducted in the area.
Such projects would develop advanced technologies and create additional jobs, the president said.
The project with ExxonMobil and Russia’s Arctic shelf exploration as a whole came under threat after the United States, along with the European Union and several other countries, imposed sanctions on Russia's energy, financial and defense sectors last week over Russia's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.
The European Union banned its producers from exporting to Russia technologies and equipment linked to deep water and Arctic oil exploration and production, as well as to shale-oil projects. The United States also introduced sanctions banning future contracts on supplying Russia with technologies and equipment used for hydrocarbon development.
Rosneft has proposed to the country’s government to amend its corporate purchases law or scrap import duties on drilling equipment in the wake of the recent Western sanctions.
Moscow stressed that Russia was never involved in the Ukrainian conflict and retaliated with a blanket ban on food imports from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, and Norway.
