Russia and the USA

areas of Alaska where it was actually banned earlier, that is, in the National Oil Reserve and the National Arctic Reserve, as well as on the Alaskan shelf in the waters of the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea. Trump has also repeatedly criticized the “unsatisfactory performance” of international institutions in the Arctic. And although the new administration did not begin to block the conclusion of agreements on the expansion of scientific cooperation in the Arctic (May 2017) and on the ban on unregulated fishing in the central part of the Arctic Ocean (November 2017), which were prepared with the participation of Obama coalition, it was clear that it was not going to force the implementation of these agreements. It is no coincidence that in 2018 the funding of polar research as a whole was reduced by 10.3% compared to 2016. Funding for Arctic research fell over this period by 18.1%. ⁴⁰The “correction” of the Arctic course of the American president has led to serious personnel shifts in his administration. In 2017, almost all the key State Department officials who were responsible for the country's Arctic policy and advocated for the active participation of the United States in Arctic cooperation programs resigned. Washington’s partners in the Arctic dialogue do not yet have a clear idea of the content and priorities of the Trump administration’s Arctic strategy.

Washington pays great attention primarily to the study and creation of conditions for the economic development of the resources of its Arctic territory (Alaska) and the adjacent shelf.

However, in the ruling class of the United States there are differences on the economic and environmental development of the Arctic sector of the country. The Democratic Party stands for conservation of the natural resources of the Far North. The Republicans insist that it is necessary to start work on the gradual development of hydrocarbons in the Arctic now, so as not to lag behind other polar powers. Trump began his activities in this direction by lifting the ban on Obama to issue licenses for the extraction of hydrocarbons on the shelf in the Chukchi and Bering Seas, as well as in the Beaufort Sea, by issuing a special decree in April 2017.⁴¹ In parallel, involvement of American and international oil and gas companies in the exploitation of energy resources off the coast of Alaska.

As for foreign economic activity, before the Ukrainian crisis of 2014, the US oil and gas business considered cooperation with Russia in the energy sector to be a very important priority.

American companies were very willing to cooperate with Russian partners in this area. So, in April 2012, ExxonMobil and Rosneft signed an agreement on cooperation in geological exploration and development of oil and gas resources in the Kara Sea. It was beneficial for Russia to attract the missing financial resources and modern exploration and drilling

40 O’Rourke R. Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress. (Washington, Congressional Research Service, 2018). https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41153.pdf

41 Executive Order 13795, “Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy”, 2017.

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-05-03/pdf/2017-09087.pdf

technologies in the northern latitudes. Another major joint project, Rosneft and the American company ConocoPhillips, were conducted in the Nenets Autonomous Area, where the Ardalinskoye field was developed, and significant investments from the American side were expected⁴². The prospect of a long-term business partnership in the Arctic region was developing. However, with the introduction of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation, projects in the field of Arctic energy were frozen. At the same time, the American oil industry suffered major losses. ExxonMobil alone lost $ 6 billion.

With the advent of D. Trump and the appointment of Secretary of State R. Tillerson, the former president of ExxonMobil, there were hopes for an early lifting of sanctions and the resumption of Russian-American cooperation. However, the unprecedented pressure on the administration of D. Trump of the anti-Russian lobby, which often used the US Congress for its own purposes, made it impossible to improve relations between the two powers and even led to the expansion of these sanctions and further deterioration of bilateral relations. The American non-oil and gas business was forced to reorient to other areas, less dependent on the political situation. At the same time, a number of opportunities for Russian-American economic cooperation in the Arctic still remain. For example, one of the possible prospects for such cooperation may be the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Yamal to the United States.

It is noteworthy that the first voyage of the newly built ice-class gas carrier “Cree-Stoff de Margerie” from Sabetta was not made to Southeast Asia, as originally planned, but to England, where the LNG batch was loaded onto a British gas carrier and delivered to the northeastern coast of the United States (Boston), which experienced a shortage of fuel in conditions of unprecedented cooling in the winter of 2018. In the case of the construction of other LNG plants in the Arctic regions of Russia (and such plans already exist), the supply of liquefied gas overseas across the Severn mu sea-sky Route (NSR) can become regular.

42 Expert: “Rosneft” and Exxon Mobil Will Be Able to Extract up to 90 Billion Barrels of Oil and Gas in the Arctic http://www.arctic-info.ru/news/28-04-2012/ekspert---rosneft_--i-exxon-mobil-smogyt-dobivat_-v-arktike-do-90- mlrd--barrelei-nefti-i-gaza/