Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 05 2023

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

ExxonMobil gets hit with alleged

unpaid Russian tax bill

RUSSIA THE Russian General Prosecutor’s Office is prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request
asking a court to retrieve RUB15.5bn rubles by the news agency for comment. The next hear-
The US major said that ($220mn) in taxes that it claims US major Exx- ing of the case in Sakhalin is scheduled to take
its Russian assets had onMobil has not paid, Russian news wires TASS place on February 28.
been expropriated last and Interfax reported on January 31. ExxonMobil booked a $4.6bn impairment
year. The move comes three months after Exx- charge in April when it decided to withdraw
onMobil complained that its assets in Russia from Russia. It also slashed production at Sakha-
had been expropriated. The US major itself lin-1 after declaring a force majeure and vacated
announced it would pull out of Russia in the its staff from the country.
wake of the start of Moscow’s invasion of Russia’s state-owned Rosneft, another part-
Ukraine in late February. But Russia later passed ner at Sakhalin-1, accused the US major in May
a law that prevented the sale of ExxonMobil’s last year of causing a steep drop in the project's
30% interest in Sakhalin-1, prompting the com- output. According to Russian media reports, it
pany to threaten legal proceedings. fell from a pre-war level of 220,000 barrels per
Russia’s government ordered the transfer of day to a mere 10,000 bpd.
operatorship of Sakhalin-1 in October to a new Reuters in October attributed the drastic cut
operator also known as Sakhalin-1. Previously, in oil exports to ExxonMobil’s refusal to accept
besides ExxonMobil and Rosneft, other partners local insurance for tankers. Western insurers
at Sakhalin-1 include India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd stopped covering tankers operated by Russian
(OVL) and Japanese consortium SODECO. state shipping firm Sovcomflot, after it was
A regional court in Sakhalin lists on its blacklisted under Western sanctions.
website a claim against ExxonMobil’s Russian As for the other partners in Sakhalin-1, the
subsidiary, Exxon Neftegaz, by the General Pros- Russian government approved requests by
ecutor’s Office, without elaborating on details. India’s ONGC Videsh and the Sakhalin Oil and
ExxonMobil has not commented as of press Gas Development Co (SODECO) consortium of
time, according to Reuters, while the local court Japanese firms to keep their stakes in the project
has also declined to provide further details. The of 20% and 30% respectively. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 01•February•2023