Ted Cruz wants US to examine Exxon deal with Russia

Fuel Fix:

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, traveling in Israel and Eastern Europe to meet foreign leaders, said Wednesday that the U.S. should review a planned Exxon Mobil Corp. oil exploration project with the Russian state-controlled company Rosneft as the West looks for ways to apply more pressure over the Ukraine crisis.

“That’s a question that was raised a number of times today in the Ukraine,” Cruz told U.S. reporters in a conference call from Poland. “It’s a question we need to look very closely at. I am of the view that we need to increase the sanctions on Russia . . . for Russia’s act of war against Ukraine.”

The Texas Republican’s remarks underscored the political difficulties surrounding calls in the U.S. and Europe for sanctions against Russia that could have economic consequences back home.
The Texas-based oil conglomerate plans to start drilling in Russia’s arctic Kara Sea region this summer as part of a global partnership with Rosneft, even though the Russian company’s chief executive officer, Igor Sechin, has been a target of U.S. sanctions.

Cruz, widely considered to be laying the groundwork for a 2016 White House run, talked about an array of additional actions he believes the U.S. should take, including providing basic military equipment to the Ukrainian army.

He stopped short of specifically endorsing a pullout from the $600 million Kara Sea project, saying only that it had come up in his conversations with Ukrainian leaders. He twice repeated that “it’s a question we should look very closely at.”

Cruz’s remarks came as Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil’s chief executive officer, told reporters after the company’s annual meeting in Dallas that U.S. sanctions against Russian have had no impact on the company’s joint venture with Rosneft.

“There has been no impact on any of our business activities in Russia to this point, nor has there been any discernible impact on the relationship,” he told the Associated Press. “The organizations continue to work business as usual.”

Tillerson also said the company has expressed its doubts about the effectiveness of sanctions at the “highest levels” of the U.S. government.

At the same time, members of Congress, led by Texas Republican Lamar Smith, have been pressing NASA for briefings about the impact of U.S. sanctions on space exploration with Russia, which currently ferries American astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also has been pressing the Pentagon to drop a Russian supplier of helicopters in Afghanistan in favor of acquiring American-made helicopters, possibly from Texas-based Bell Helicopters.

The Obama administration continues to allow American companies to do business with Rosneft, even though Sechin, the company’s top executive, is not allowed in the U.S.

By some estimates, the size of the geological structure Exxon Mobil is exploring in the Russian Arctic contains more than 9 billion barrels, worth more than $900 billion at current prices.
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There is much more.

I am disappointed to see Exxon side with Russia at a time when that country is engaged in acts of aggression.  It is unfortunate that the Democrats' policy of artificial scarcity of US oil and gas resources pushes companies like Exxon to invest in places like Russia rather than on federal sites in the US.  From the North Slope of Alaska to offshore sites and shale deposits in the Western US, the Obama adminsitration and Democrats continue to block and slow roll energy exploration that could create thousands of jobs and contribute billions to the treasury.  Instead, the artificial scarcity policy is leading to strengthening despots like Putin.  It is just bad policy to satisfy the carbon phobic left.