Drilling for oil and gas around the harsh, remote island of Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East was never going to be easy, but a political chill has put some of the world’s biggest energy projects in an unexpected deep freeze. In the decade since they
negotiated separate drilling agreements with Russian authorities, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell have gone way over budget and incurred the wrath of leading environmental groups.

But last week, the two oil majors faced their biggest challenge so far: a Kremlin backlash that could hold up or even potentially derail their plans. Moscow revoked a key environmental license for Shell’s $20 billion project, and took a tough line with Exxon over likely cost overruns on its $13 billion efforts. Russian officials also took aim at a third big oil exploration site in the Arctic by France’s Total, saying it wasn’t performing as promised.

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“This is what happens when Russian oil companies have their headquarters at the Kremlin,”

This is an amusing statement, when you consider you could say the same thing about the American oil companies. Look at the huge amount of U.S. military presence and bases around the globe, and you see a track record of building bases to protect big oil interests.