Russian Deal With Exxon Includes Frack Training

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Alexey Druzhinin / AFP/Getty Images

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) speaks with ExxonMobil President and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson during the signing of a Rosneft-ExxonMobil strategic partnership agreement in Sochi on August 30, 2011. Russia's oil champion Rosneft and US ExxonMobil clinched a global deal worth up to half-a-trillion dollars that will see the US supermajor take BP's place in pioneering Arctic exploration work. AFP PHOTO / RIA NOVOSTI / POOL / ALEXEY DRUZHININ (Photo credit should read ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images)

August 31, 2011 | 2:50 PM

Alexey Druzhinin / AFP/Getty Images

Exxon’s deal with Russian energy company Rosneft to tap arctic oil fields comes with a bonus for the Russians. Exxon will teach the state-owned company how to frack in order to gain access to previously untapped oil reserves in Siberia. From the Dallas Morning News:

The Rosneft deal also shows how Exxon can turn its $41 billion purchase of Fort Worth’s XTO Energy into key a bargaining chip to get access to oil fields around the world. XTO developed technology to draw natural gas out of tight shale rock in North Texas, and has applied the technology to oil and gas elsewhere.

Exxon recently increased its natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. In June, the oil giant purchased more than 300,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale play from smaller independent companies. Last year, Exxon acquired XTO Energy.