Russia seeks $220m in unpaid taxes from oil giant Exxon

The Russian general prosecutor’s office is asking a court to recover 15.5-billion roubles ($220m) in allegedly unpaid taxes from US oil major ExxonMobil, local news agencies TASS and Interfax reported on Tuesday citing court documents.

The Sakhalin regional court website lists a claim against Exxon Neftegaz, ExxonMobil’s Russian subsidiary, by the general prosecutor’s office, without giving further details.

Exxon did not immediately reply to a request for comment outside of US working hours. The Russian prosecutor’s office and local court did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Exxon last year issued force majeure and abandoned an offshore oil project on the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin due to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after it sent troops into Ukraine on what it still calls a “special military operation”.

Moscow retaliated by blocking foreign investors’ assets, in some cases also seizing them.

After Exxon’s exit Moscow established a new entity, managed by a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Rosneft, that owns investor rights in the Sakhalin-1 project.

The next hearing of the case in Sakhalin is scheduled for February 28, according to the court’s website.

Exxon took an impairment charge of $4.6bn on its Russian activities in April. It also reduced local energy production and moved staff out of the country.

Russia last year approved requests by India’s ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Company, a consortium of Japanese firms, to retain their respective 20% and 30% stakes in the Sakhalin project.

Reuters