Leak reveals Rex Tillerson was director of Bahamas-based US-Russian oil firm<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
screams The Guardian<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Rex Tillerson, the businessman nominated by Donald Trump to be the next US secretary of state, was the long-time director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the Bahamas, leaked documents show.<\/p>\n Tillerson \u2013 the chief executive of ExxonMobil \u2013 became a director of the oil company\u2019s Russian subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas, in 1998. His name \u2013 RW Tillerson \u2013 appears next to other officers who are based at Houston, Texas; Moscow; and Sakhalin, in Russia\u2019s far east.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’m not sure what the issue is here. \u00a0Presumably the dolts at The Guardian<\/em> had never heard of ExxonNeftegas, unlike pretty much everyone else in the oil industry who pays attention, and thinks it is some sort of shady shell-company set up to launder Putin’s personal cash float, or something. \u00a0The reality is a lot less interesting:\u00a0ExxonNeftegas is merely the consortium set up to operate the Sakhalin I project, as its website<\/a> tells us:<\/p>\n Sakhalin-1 is comprised of Russian, Japanese, Indian and American participants and is operated by Exxon Neftegas Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil \u2014 the world\u2019s largest non-governmental oil and gas company.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Anyone who has spent time in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk would have seen the ExxonNeftegas building on the corner of Prospekts Mira and Kommunistichesky, and they would have encountered lots of young Russians employed by the firm each of whom had a business card with the company name and Sakhalin-1 logo printed on it. \u00a0(They may also have encountered a\u00a0Canadian with more air miles under her belt than Voyager 2. \u00a0Let’s see if she’s reading this.) \u00a0Secretive it is not.<\/p>\n Maybe The Guardian<\/em> takes issue with the fact that the information regarding Tillerson’s directorship of ExxonNeftegas had to be leaked for them to find out. \u00a0And they would have a point, were ExxonMobil not silly enough to include such top-secret information on their corporate website<\/a>:<\/p>\n But as The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0tells us:<\/p>\n Though there is nothing untoward about this directorship, it has not been reported before and is likely to raise fresh questions over Tillerson\u2019s relationship with Russia ahead of a potentially stormy confirmation hearing by the US senate foreign relations committee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is nothing untoward about this directorship, but as Guardian<\/em> journalists didn’t know about it\u00a0then\u00a0it’s a scandal worthy of a newspaper column.<\/p>\n ExxonMobil\u2019s use of offshore regimes \u2013 while legal \u2013 may also jar with Trump\u2019s avowal to put \u201cAmerica first\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fair point, but it might be a bit of a stretch to complain that ExxonMobil isn’t insisting its Russian operations are headquartered in the United States. \u00a0The company’s registration in the Bahamas is probably new information to most: I knew about it because I have signed contracts with ExxonNeftegas Limited and their corporate address is stated in them\u00a0(along with a stipulation that any arbitration will be heard in the courts of New York). \u00a0The incorporation in the Bahamas may seem odd, but it is not unusual.<\/p>\n ExxonNeftegas’ counterpart in that corner of Russia is Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC), which is the operator of the Sakhalin II project. \u00a0SEIC is registered in Bermuda, probably for much the same reasons ExxonNeftegas is incorporated in the Bahamas. \u00a0SEIC has been majority owned by Gazprom, the government-owned gas company, since 2007. \u00a0If there was anything untoward in these consortia being registered outside the Russian Federation on balmy island tax havens, the Russian government would likely have done something about SEIC by now given they have had control of the company for the past 9 years. \u00a0That they haven’t suggests there is nothing illegal or improper going on. \u00a0As The Guardian<\/em> reports:<\/p>\n [ExxonMobil] said the oil firm had incorporated some of its affiliates in the Bahamas because of \u201csimplicity and predictability\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not done to reduce tax in the country where the company operates,\u201d Exxon said. \u201cIncorporation of a company in the Bahamas does not decrease ExxonMobil\u2019s tax liability in the country where the entity generates its income.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indeed. \u00a0Only among Guardian<\/em> readers is this a story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is amusing: Leak reveals Rex Tillerson was director of Bahamas-based US-Russian oil firm screams The Guardian. Rex Tillerson, the businessman nominated by Donald Trump to be the next US secretary of state, was the long-time director of a US-Russian … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Tillerson.jpg\")
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