?We hope that the government (of Russia) and these multinational corporations are able to reach agreement in a way that respects the rule of law, continues to provide oil to the markets and demonstrates that Russia is open to foreign investment,? Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens said, quoted by Reuters.
A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to comment.
Sergei Fyodorov, head of geological and subsoil use policies at Russia?s Ministry of Natural Resources, said his ministry had been preliminarily told Exxon?s costs could rise to $17 billion from an initial $12.8 billion, but it has seen no final documents.
This follows a doubling of costs to $20 billion at Royal Dutch/Shell?s neighboring Sakhalin-2 project, which the Russian side has severely opposed.
The moves against Shell and Exxon are widely seen as part of a broader Kremlin campaign to tighten its grip on the energy sector, a drive that is expected to speed up before Vladimir Putin?s presidency ends in March 2008.
Analysts have said Russia is trying to force foreign oil companies to give up part or all of their advantageous production sharing agreements, which were negotiated at a time of much lower global oil prices. The agreements were signed in 1990s, when Russia had no money of its own to develop the new deposits. One of their main clauses is that the foreign companies are freed from paying almost all of the taxes. Russian officials have already hinted that the situation could be corrected if the international majors agreed to work under a regular tax regime.
