Washington Offers Russia Postwar Oil Deals for US Majors to Bring Putin Into Ukraine Talks

The White House has proposed renewed postwar business ties with Russia, including deals for major US oil companies, as an incentive for President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported. Proposals under discussion include reviving ExxonMobil's role in the Sakhalin-1 project and resuming oil deliveries to Europe through the Druzhba pipeline, both conditional on a ceasefire, according to a GuruFocus summary of the reports.

The commercial track has been widening for weeks. Earlier in October, The New York Times reported that the talks covered a sale of Lukoil's foreign oil fields, refineries and filling stations to an investor group. According to The Moscow Times' account of that report, the group includes US investor Todd Boehly, two Middle Eastern firms that have done business with the families of US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and an arm of the US government.

Moscow's public response has emphasized willingness to talk while making no commitment. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said that "dialogue will prevail" and that supporters of military conflict will be defeated, TASS reported.

European governments are trying to keep their own channel open. In an October 27 call, Putin gave the leaders of Norway and Finland a long account of medieval Slavic history and made little mention of an immediate ceasefire, the Financial Times reported. The Kyiv Independent highlighted the absence of any ceasefire offer. Neither report described a change in Russia's stated war aims.