By LeftOfCentre
U.S. Secretary of State, Rex (RExxon) Tillerson forged a massive venture with Russian-owned oil company and Putin’s gravy train, Rosneft in 2012. But then Vladimir decided to invade Ukraine and Obama had no choice but to issue sanctions upon Russia, putting a halt to any progress on this massive project. This was a monkey wrench into the $500 billion venture between Rosneft and Exxon. Until now.
The Wall Street Journal explains:
Exxon has been seeking U.S. permission to drill with Rosneft in several areas banned by sanctions and applied in recent months for a waiver to proceed in the Black Sea, according to these people.
The Black Sea request is likely to be closely scrutinized by members of Congress who are seeking to intensify sanctions on Russia in response to what the U.S. said was its use of cyberattacks to interfere with elections last year. Congress has also launched an investigation into whether there were ties between aides to Donald Trump and Russia’s government during the presidential campaign and the political transition.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is Exxon’s former chief executive officer and forged a close working relationship with Rosneft and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The State Department is among the U.S. government agencies that have a say on Exxon’s waiver application, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Due to the sanctions, other major components of the Exxon-Rosneft agreement were put on hold in 2014, shortly before Rosneft revealed that the first well the two companies drilled together in the arctic waters of the Kara Sea may hold as much as 750 million barrels of oil.
The Black Sea has become a major area of interest for many of the world’s biggest oil companies. Exxon has drilled there off the coast of Romania and holds a license for an area in Ukrainian waters. Royal Dutch Shell PLC has also drilled in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey.
Isn’t it convenient that the State Department plays a major role in approving this deal? Tillerson and Trump, likely at the behest of Vladimir Putin, have gutted the Department of State, which is woefully understaffed.
The state department’s weakness also empowers Trump and his advisers, and enables them to more easily bypass the electorate and the bureaucracy when making foreign policy decisions.
There’s no question why Putin simply marched his way into Ukraine and seized Crimea, strategic access is very important. He wasn’t about to say bye bye (до свидания, do svidaniya) to all those rubles.
The earning potential of the Black Sea makes Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves seem like the ‘JV Squad’ of wealth. So now, Putin has his personal buddy in charge of removing those very financially straining sanctions and VOILA! CA CHING! Rexxon, Putin and all the other evil members of their circle of fascism can rule the world.
The GOP pretends to love the unborn as a diversion, so we don’t mention the unpleasant reality that our government is controlled by a party completely devoted to this oil deal. Even Halliburton plays a pretty big role in all this.
Russia faces a dilemma: it still needs Exxon Mobil Corp., Halliburton Co. and BP Plc to maintain output from Soviet-era oil fields and develop Arctic and shale reserves.
There’s nothing to see here, no unsavory business practices, no ethical conundrums, right? Just a couple hundred billion dollars, ROUGHLY $8,000,000,000,000.00 (TRILLION) to polluters and murderers with unlimited nuclear access. What could possibly go wrong?
Must see: $500 billion opportunity for Exxon, Russia in Trump cabinet pick
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This article was originally published on Crooks and Liars as Exxon looks to Tillerson for sanctions break so they can score a jackpot and has been reproduced with permission.
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A frightening development. What can be done to unravel the stranglehold of these monsters?
(I know; establish RET’s, so that oil is not king any more and becomes worthless!)
Besides my facile but apt solution, what can be done right now to control their fascist stranglehold?
Something else.
“Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company, could end up with a majority stake in Texas-based Citgo after the entity that owns Citgo, Venezuela’s state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA, used almost half of Citgo’s shares as collateral for a loan from Rosneft.”
“That means Rosneft, a company specifically named in U.S. sanctions levied against Russia after its 2014 annexation of Crimea, is poised to become one of the biggest foreign owners of American oil refining capacity.”
https://news.vice.com/story/russia-oil-rosneft-infrastructure
Cheers.
Perhaps Putin thinks by cooperating with the yanks he can defer the planned colour revolution.
“There’s no question why Putin simply marched his way into Ukraine and seized Crimea”
Several weeks before Ukraine’s 2014 coup, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Nuland had already picked Arseniy Yatsenyuk to be the future leader, it wasn’t a Russian invasion.
In the eyes of Crimeans, Ukraine’s claims to the peninsula and the support of those claims by the West look very odd. From standpoint of the overwhelming majority of Crimea’s residents, a historical injustice was redressed in March 2014: Ukraine was stripped of what it had obtained illegally between 1991 and 1995 using deception and military force.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/03/28/so-who-annexed-crimea-peninsular-then.html
i would leave a comment here, but what would be the point?
You did leave a comment and I too am wondering what the point of it was.
Reality check: Washington started the Ukraine war, sending ambassadors John McCain and Lindsey Graham in to broker the deal, then using Soros NGOs to foment a colour revolution. After Maidan, neocon war criminal Victoria Nuland staffed the post-coup government with “Yats is our man” and then she said “F**k the EU”. From there came the typical US-sponsored war, bombing Russian civilians for 3-years continuously in eastern Ukraine. Western corporate media ignored the real crimes but managed to invent dozens of invisible Russian invasions. At the same time, NATO staffed soldiers and stocked war equipment in western Ukraine. The real invasion of Ukraine did happen, but not by the accused in the east. Rather by the accusers from the west. After Ukraine was saddled with unpayable debts, the value of the installed puppet government was dependent upon the flow of interest payments and resources from Ukraine to the new off-shore owners. All the gold was taken, industries sold, resources stripped as much as possible and bombs on Russian civilians continued even until today nonstop. But you won’t read about this in the Wall Street Journal.
Sean, do you not think it’s odd that Tillerson should be appointed Secretary of State given Exxon’s oil interests in Russia and the sanctions against that country?
I’m with John and Sean.
Not odd at all. Tillerson’s appointment was clearly about brokering some sort of oil deal – the US is, after all, an oligarchy. This seems to me to be the whole point of Trump’s anti-war campaign platform. He was supposed to the the deal-maker, right? Anyway, you can forget any of that now. With Flynn removed, Bannon hobbled and key appointments still blocked by congress, the Generals are now running the show. Hence the recent bombing of Syria and Afghanistan and posturing towards North Korea. There is no longer even any token civilian control of the military. the US is now under the control of a military junta.
Fair answer, Sean.
I also think the comment made by Sean is very plausible, regarding events in Ukraine and Crimea. Victoria Nuland was last seen as a”Minister” in the new Ukrainian govt. unless I am mistaken.
Not to mention Joe Biden’s youngest son Hunter being put on the board of Ukraine’s largest oil company Burisma.
Here are some quotes from the worlds most powerfulest man GW Bush…………”I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.
“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda”.
“Governments accountable to the voters focus on building roads and schools—not weapons of mass destruction.” (N.B.: The U.S. has 10,000 nuclear weapons)
We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories…for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them.”
George W. Bush -“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.”
“Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast, and I have a message for them: If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you”.
“I will not withdraw [from Iraq], even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.”
“I don’t have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy” Hmm WTF.
“… then using Soros NGOs to foment a colour revolution.”
I know of Avaaz, and the White Helmets, both of which are dedicated to regime change in Syria, and both of which have been used to hoodwink the Left in the US and Europe. Soros (partly) funds both Avaaz and the White Helmets through Purpose Inc., a progressive front for the Neocons.
what sean says is correct. ukraine is a western client state and its government a cia puppet. ukraine has never had any entitlement to crimea as even a brief reading of its history on wikipeadia shows. russia’s interest in crimea is not strictly about oil. the are serious defence concerns and also nato. a country with an ongoing border duspute cannot join nato. hence putin effectively prevented ukraine from joining nato by annexing crimea. thats the most important reason behind it. to create a border dispute and obstruct ukraine joining nato. hence stopping a hostile state having another border with russia
I believe Sean Stinson’s following comments are quite valid – a shame he had to make his first comment so pointless.
That might be because whenever put my opinion forward here I am labelled a Putin apologist or similar nonsense. You may have noticed I don’t bother contributing anymore.
Read my latest on counterpunch http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/21/moab-more-obama-and-bush/
Very true diannaart @6.17pm.
Not so Sean @6.35pm as you would have others to believe.
The geo-political positioning of Trump’s America, Putin’s Russia, and other states such as Syria, Israel and Crimea, constitute ever-shifting circles within circles and I don’t mind saying they are confusing when trying to understand them from an ethical viewpoint. But when viewed from a business point of view, they become clearer.
That should not be the default line. The Super Powers and their ‘acolyte states’ need to be pulled into line by our assorted populations to expect universal values of security, decent housing, community services, education, self-determination, economic fairness. These must be the orders of the day and every day.
Merely describing how the bastards are shitting on those values and those ethical prerequisites is not enough. I want to hear supposed ‘experts’ tell me how little Australia and little Aussies like us can start pulling the chain, so those bastards are made to listen.
Sean
I have been away for some time and only recently returned.
As for Russian, Chinese et al and USA contrivances in world politics – I believe everyone is so far up each other’s backsides we’d need a team of miners to find them.
I find it very hard to trust Trump or Putin. I also find it hard to believe that anybody can think either of them is picture perfect.
I agree Roswell.
What about me, Kaye?
I thought your points most pertinent, Jennifer.
Do our “leaders” not trust us with the truth? Or, more simplistically, is truth no longer relevant?
diannaart,
I’ve missed you for your insights and unpretentious intelligence.
You won’t get an argument from me, Roswell, Kaye … and Jenni. ?
Luckily you’ve had me to fill the void. ?
Michael, Jennifer you are both awesome
🙂
🙄
Great comments from Sean The little club needs to go and read more!
michael lacey I read comments about the little club on the AIM who gang up on outsiders and me being an outsider who never comments,that is why.I too enjoy Seans writings and surely folks the little love in has gone a bit over the top this time
Chuck, hasn’t anybody ever told you not to believe hearsay?
“The Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon, authorizing drilling prohibited by current Russian sanctions”
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/21/news/companies/trump-exxon-russia-sanctions/
Cheers.