Exxon held talks with Rosneft about resuming business in Russia, WSJ reports

A senior Exxon Mobil (XOM) executive held secret talks with Russia’s biggest state energy company, Rosneft, and discussed returning to the massive Sakhalin project if the two governments gave the green light as part of a Ukraine peace process, people familiar with the discussions told The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Wallace, Costas Paris, Alex Leary and Collin Eaton. In parallel, Exxon executives have asked the U.S. government for support if the company goes back to Russia, and “received a sympathetic hearing,” the report added.