- Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) CEO Rex Tillerson is visiting Moscow this week for meetings with Russian oil producer Rosneft (OTCPK:RNFTF) and government officials despite talk of further sanctions on Russian companies and individuals, Bloomberg reports.
- The visit would coincide with the March 18 anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which started the political crisis with the U.S. and Europe.
- XOM boosted its Russian holdings to 63.7M acres in 2014 from 11.4M at the end of 2013, a position that now dwarfs the 14.6M acres of rights it holds in the U.S.
Report: Exxon CEO to visit Moscow this week amid talk of more sanctions
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Comments (14)
Question for you experts; If the US continued it's sanctions beyond Obama, could XOM move it' headquarter to a foreign location and do business with Russia? Can the US stop them? Just a thought
I suppose Congress could pass a bill to nationalize XOM, and the president signs it, and that's it. Shouldn't be any problem. At least I don't see it.Here is the But. Congress is owned by these oil giants. All the wars in my view were engendered or tacitly promoted by them.So the chance of this happening is small, very small indeed.
"There isn't anything that the Americans won't sell out for money". This is the reply some 40 years ago, from my boss, Dr. Robert P, an Australian national, when I was a junior design engineer with a large computer mainframe manufacturer based in Minneapolis, MN. I was bewildered how BorgWarner would have sold their automatic transmission to Datsun (now Nissan), and other Japanese carmakers, when those carmakers only offered manual shift transmission, a major impediment for capturing the U.S. market.This country's infamous tendency to go for expediency and quick quarterly profit engineering, short-sightedness, and vulgarism has been a major factor in losing its manufacturing leadership.Sad, very sad.
I smell politics. Tillerson lives in Texas, donates to Republicans, which is a matter of public record, and Obama singled Exxon out for criticism during the 2012 debates, also a matter of public record. The company responded publicly. I seem to remember him bashing them back in 2008...Obviously it's about the sanctions. Stay tuned. This could be up there with Netanyahu addressing the Senate (by invitation) and the Republican letter to Iran. Tillerson has already been very vocal about US energy policy. I would take it as evidence that US oil production won't make us energy independent and shale oil isn't a long term answer. I don't think being buddies with Putin is an answer either.
This is a tough position to be in for Exxon. The bashing our own POTUS has given Exxon from 2008 to 2012 is completely un called for and wrong. Why should one single American ENERGY company be singled out for a bashing by Obama so that he can win votes. Yet this same POTUS buddies up with one of the biggest investors in the US to strike a deal that helps the investor with building a rail empire that transports crude oil in an unsafe manner versus using a much safer and cheaper oil pipeline. Our POTUS is doing nothing more or less than Putin is doing. I wonder what or how our POTUS would react to one of our large military bases being threatened of being taken over? Crimea to Russia is like one of a number of large strategic US bases. How would the US respond if our Crimea type base was threatened? These are just questions and assumptions I have, and I do not know all the facts well enough to answer these questions and assumptions. I'm just raising the questions. Regards.
Tom: The political story is not as clear as you imply. Sure some Republicans in the higher ranks of Exxon might want to have decent relations with Russia, as do I. However, many prominent Republicans, including ones in the energy states are taking the opposite approach, and are into a dangerous level of warmongering against Russia. They have been convinced that President Obama is too "weak" on foreign policy--so they therefore are trying to goad him doing more aggressive actions anywhere they can be imagined. Nevertheless, a wise conservative will want peace.
I have fear every time a company treats Russia like a developing Eastern European country.
There is no rule of law, there is no concept of "ownership".
Barclay's is on the hook also, so is VW. I feel that the countries where these companies do business should be demanding a writedown of these assets as "impaired". Germany should not be expected to treat the VW assets as worth 18 billion, but more like 12 billion or less. Same with Exxon. Same with Barclay's. They risked, they lost.
There is no rule of law, there is no concept of "ownership".
Barclay's is on the hook also, so is VW. I feel that the countries where these companies do business should be demanding a writedown of these assets as "impaired". Germany should not be expected to treat the VW assets as worth 18 billion, but more like 12 billion or less. Same with Exxon. Same with Barclay's. They risked, they lost.
