During peace agreement negotiations held this month, American and Russian officials discussed several energy deals, writes Reuters. According to the publication's sources, these deals were proposed as incentives to encourage the Kremlin to agree to peace in Ukraine, and Washington to ease sanctions against Russia.
Russia has been cut off from most international investments in its energy sector and from concluding major deals due to sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The US may ease this isolation to achieve a peace agreement on Ukraine.
Officials discussed the possibility of Exxon Mobil returning to the Russian oil and gas project "Sakhalin-1". On August 15, Putin signed a decree that may allow foreign investors, including Exxon Mobil, to regain shares in the "Sakhalin-1" project. The condition for this is that foreign shareholders take measures to support the lifting of Western sanctions against Russia. Exxon exited the Russian business in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine, incurring losses of $4.6 billion.
In the same year, the Kremlin confiscated a 30% stake of the operator in the "Sakhalin-1" project in the Russian Far East.
Additionally, the possibility of Russia purchasing American equipment for LNG production projects, such as Arctic LNG 2, which is under Western sanctions, was raised. Another idea was for the US to purchase nuclear icebreakers from Russia.
According to three sources, the negotiations took place during a trip by American envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow earlier this month and at the White House with US President Donald Trump, two sources reported.
As the agency writes, Trump's deal-making political style had already manifested in negotiations on Ukraine when earlier this year the same officials explored ways in which the US could resume supplies of Russian gas to Europe. These plans were stalled by Brussels, which proposed a complete phase-out of Russian gas imports by 2027.
The latest discussions shifted towards bilateral deals between the US and Russia, excluding the EU, which unequivocally supports Ukraine.