Possible Russia-Ukraine Agreement Under Threat

While ExxonMobil suspends cooperation with Rosneft in the Arctic, a possible agreement between Russia and Ukraine seems more remote, as Ukrainian officials are taking distance from some points taken for granted during precedent rounds of negotiations.  

Russian reports say that Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko would push for the EU Association Agreement to come into force in full in November, breaking the deal that would have postponed full implementation to January 2016. Russian officials said that the Kremlin could retaliate.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil is preparing to leave the Arctic in the next month. This is likely to happen soon despite a recent discovery announced last week. 

On Saturday, Rosneft said that the partnership completed the drilling of the northernmost week in the world. 

‘This is an outstanding result of the first exploratory drilling on a completely new offshore field. This is our united victory, it was achieved thanks to our friends and partners from ExxonMobil, Nord Atlantic Drilling, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford, Baker, Trendsetter, FMC,’ reads a note released on Saturday.

In this backdrop, tensions in Russia remain, as a possible power struggle could soon emerge. Sistema is indeed trying to secure its interests and it is not excluding further actions to Moscow Court of Arbitration's decision to impose a restriction on transactions relating Sistema’s shares in Bashneft.

‘Sistema was not party to the privatisation of BashTEK Group and will use all available legal means to defend its rights. Sistema is continuing to cooperate fully with the investigations and will update the market as appropriate,’ reads a note released on Monday.