The United States fined Exxon for transactions with Rosneft

The US Department of Treasury for Foreign Asset Management fined Exxonmobil $ 2 million for transactions with Rosneft. This is stated on the website of the department.

The American company concluded eight contracts with the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin in May 2014. Contracts were related to oil and gas projects. Thus, Exxonmobil violated the sanctions against Russia imposed due to conflict in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

In the department, this was considered a "egregious case." The company also did not report violations of sanctions voluntarily.

The official representative of Rosneft, Mikhail Leontyev, said that Exxon agreed on all actions with sanctions lawyers. He noted that the head of the company Igor Sechin was included in the sanctions list as an individual. At the same time, the transaction for which Exxonmobil was fined, Sechin participated as the Executive Director of Rosneft, "to which actions that did not fall under sanctioned restrictions were performed."

“Nobody questions the agreements themselves, therefore the fine is so small: specific procedures are fined - signing documents with a person from the sanctions list. Moreover, this item is interpreted by the American regulator is very ambiguous, ”said Leontyev.

A similar comment was given in Exxonmobil.

In early July, Rosneft offered Exxonmobil to buy shares in several projects, including in the Russian field in Yamal.

Prior to this, in April, the American company allegedly appealed to the US Department of Finance with a request to allow it to work with Russia bypassing sanctions. According to The Wall Street Journal, Exxon wanted to drill wells with a Russian company where it is forbidden to make sanctions. In particular, it was about the Black Sea. The Ministry of Finance, however, forbade her to circumvent sanctions.

In 2012, Exxon and Rosneft signed a document that allows an American company to develop a Russian shelf in the Black Sea.