- Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.3%) was forced to shut down a Russian Arctic drilling project by U.S. and European Union sanctions, it is taking the long view and staking claims to areas that could yield tens of billions of barrels in coming decades.
- XOM boosted its Russian holdings to 63.7M acres in 2014 from 11.4M at the end of 2014, dwarfing the 14.6M acres of rights it holds in the U.S., which until last year was its largest exploration prospect.
- The bet on Russia follows a string of drilling failures elsewhere and spending cuts that will likely be addressed in CEO Rex Tillerson’s investor meeting tomorrow.
- Worldwide, XOM’s exploration failure rate worsened last year to 39% from 33% in 2013, and had dry holes in two-thirds of the regions in which it operates; also, its costs to extract a barrel of crude from the ground rose 9.3% to a global average of $12.55.