In a recent move, the U.S. and Russian government officials have gone on to discuss numerous major energy deals in August 2025.
These deals went on to be put forward as incentives so as to encourage the easing of sanctions on Russia.
It is well to be noted that Russia has already been cut off from the international investment across its energy sector and also from striking major energy deals due to the sanctions after the Ukraine war unfolded in February 2022.
The officials have also gone on to discuss the possibility of Exxon Mobil re-entering the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia. There is also a prospect of Russia buying the U.S. equipment for its LNG projects, like the one based at the Arctic LNG 2, which, by the way, happens to be under severe western sanctions.
There is yet another idea that has been floated pertaining to the fact that the U.S. could as well buy icebreaker vessels that are nuclear-powered from Russia, as stated in a report published in Reuters on August 15, 2025. Apparently, these talks were held at the time of Steve Witkoff’s, the U.S. envoy’s, trip to Moscow earlier in August, when he had met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Kirill Dmitriev, his investment envoy. Talks were also discussed within the White House along with Donald Trump, the U.S. President.
It is worth noting that these deals were also discussed briefly during the Alaska summit that took place on August 15. As per one of the sources, the White House was actually looking to put out a headline post the Alaska summit by way of announcing a big investment deal, as this is the way Trump feels as if he has achieved something.
The dealmaking style of Trump has been on display when earlier this year officials looked forward for ways the U.S. could revive the Russian gas flows to Europe. All these plans now look stalled, as Brussels has already put forward proposals so as to completely phase out gas imports from Russia by 2027. Apparently, these latest discussions have shifted their way to bilateral deals between the U.S. and Russia, hence moving away from the European Union.
Notably, Putin also signed a decree on the same day as the Alaska summit, which could allow foreign investors, such as Exxon Mobil, to regain their shares in the Sakhalin-1 project. It happens to be conditional on the foreign shareholders taking action so as to support the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia.
Apparently, Exxon went ahead and exited the Russian business in 2022 post the Ukraine war and took away a $4.6 billion impairment charge. Its 30% operator share in the Sakhalin-1 project based in Russia’s Far East was seized by the Kremlin in 2024.
The fact is that the U.S. has already gone on to place many waves of sanctions on the Arctic LNG 2 project of Russia starting in 2022 by way of cutting off access to ice-class ships, which are actually required to operate within that region for a major part of the year.
Apparently, this project is majority-owned by Novatek, which began working along with lobbyists based out of Washington in 2024 so as to try to recreate the relations that could lead to the lifting of the sanctions.
As per the reports, the Arctic LNG 2 plant recommenced the natural gas processing in April 2025, although at a low rate, and there are five cargoes that have been loaded from the project in 2025 onto tankers but under sanctions. Interestingly, a production train was in the past shut down because of the challenges in exporting due to the sanctions.
It is well to be noted that this project was intended to have three LNG processing trains, where the third train happens to be in the planning stages, with technology all set to be supplied by China.
Washington is also looking forward to prompting Russia to purchase the U.S. tech and not Chinese as part of a much wider plan to go ahead and alienate China and also weaken the bond between Beijing and Moscow.
