First posted on Instagram
Washington and Moscow are discussing a plan that would bring American oil companies back into Russia and restore Russian crude sales to Europe as part of the effort to end the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
Under the proposals, a joint venture involving American and Russian oil majors off the coast of Sakhalin island in Russia's Far East would be revived, and American companies would be involved in resuming Russian oil sales to European refineries through the Druzhba pipeline, according to people familiar with the discussions.
U.S. officials stressed that the ventures would proceed only after the war ends. "Economic agreements would be included in and subject to a comprehensive peace framework that stops the killing in this brutal war; nothing is finalised," a U.S. official told the Financial Times.
Moscow views the matter differently, two sources familiar with the discussions told the paper: the Russians see the offers as a reason for President Donald Trump to normalize relations with them before the fighting stops.
The energy proposals form part of a broader commercial package intended to encourage a settlement. Other ideas under discussion include resuming access for U.S. airlines to Russian airspace, restarting U.S.-Russia cooperation on producing and supplying titanium for civilian aircraft, the potential sale of Lukoil's international assets, a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska involving Russia's Novatek, resuming gas supplies through what remains of the Nord Stream pipelines, relaxing sanctions on potash fertilisers, and transferring management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine to a U.S. entity that would split energy between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff discussed possible business deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in early September, and at a subsequent visit to Moscow last week wrote "Business Deals" in his notebook, according to photographs published by the Kremlin press pool. The effort builds on earlier talks involving Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who in February estimated the value of potential projects at $14 trillion.
The discussions have since stalled over Russia's demands for Ukrainian territorial concessions, and Washington is now pinning its hopes on three-party talks in Abu Dhabi next month, with post-conflict security guarantees set to dominate the agenda.
ExxonMobil, which was previously involved in the Sakhalin-1 project, stated last year that it had no plans to resume operations in Russia. The Financial Times sought comment from the company on the new reports, but it had not responded.
The report comes after the New York Times reported on October 17 that the Trump administration was pitching Europe resuming purchases of Russian gas as part of a peace deal — an idea European officials in the talks recoiled at, after years of EU efforts, backed by Washington, to rid itself of Russian gas.