There is another aspect of the Oil Wars outside of the military and the pricing considerations that involves our oil majors. They are losing contracts everywhere, I don’t know if it is possible to compute the vast amounts lost. When you have a pre-emptive policy such as ours not seen since Nazi Germany no one wants to play with you. -Am
Russia won't revive Exxon Sakhalin-3 deal-paper Reuters, 04.01.04, 1:59 AM ET
MOSCOW, April 1 (Reuters) - Russia will not revive output sharing agreements with Western oil majors, including its deal with ExxonMobil (nyse: XOM - news - people) on the eastern Sakhalin island, a newspaper on Thursday quoted a Russian minister as saying.
New Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev told business daily Vedomosti he was against reviving production sharing agreements (PSAs), which guarantee investors stable taxes for the life of the project.
"There must be equal rules for everybody. This also applies to Sakhalin-3 project. The PSA regime is very subjective and therefore creates chances for corruption," Trutnev said.
Russia almost scrapped the PSA system last year, saying the regular tax regime was already stable enough.
Only three advanced PSA projects survived as a result, including Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2, led by ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell <RD.AS> <SHEL.L> and the Kharyaga project in Siberia, led by France's Total <TOTF.PA>.
Dozens of other less advanced PSA plans have been scrapped, including Sakhalin-3, which ExxonMobil originally agreed to develop under the PSA regime but which remains in the starting blocks after nearly a decade.
Last year, ExxonMobil said it was no longer seeking a PSA deal and was ready to tap Sakhalin-3 on a regular tax regime, but Russia said in January it would put out Sakhalin-3 project to open tender.
ExxonMobil and the U.S. government have slammed Moscow's decision to tender the block, saying the move may damage cooperation between the two states in the energy sector.
The Sakhalin-3 Kirinsk block was led by ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil firm by market capitalisation, and included number two U.S. oil firm ChevronTexaco and Russian state oil firm Rosneft. It is estimated to hold 450 million tonnes (3.3 billion barrels) of oil reserves.
Another example… RIYADH, March 7 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia opened the door on Sunday to fresh natural gas exploration, securing $800 million worth of Russian, Chinese and European investment that it said would forge new political and economic alliances.
Notably absent from the small club of foreign investors have been U.S. oil majors who had negotiated for years for the more ambitious "Natural Gas Initiative" which collapsed last summer after prolonged wrangling. #msg-2542242
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