Exxon starts drilling Russian shelf in the Arctic

On August 9th, the American oil giant ExxonMobil started drilling on the continental shelf of the Russian Arctic within its joint venture with Rosneft – the project, whose implementation seemed questionable after the imposition of the U.S. sanctions against Russia, which also apply to the largest Russian state-owned oil company, the Reuters reports.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin joined the launch ceremony in the mode of teleconference; the ceremony was also visited by head of Rosneft Igor Sechin and President of the Russian subsidiary of ExxonMobil Glenn Waller.