Geoffrey Pyatt, who ran the State Department’s energy diplomacy under President Biden, gave the Financial Times a one-line verdict on Oct. 27 about the postwar US-Russia business deals the paper said were under discussion: “I can’t see any of it lasting contact with the real world.” Whether US companies return to Russia is the question underneath every one of those proposals. The record of the last four years is a long list of writedowns, seizures and rising exit fees.
Where it stands: By October 28, no major US company had announced plans to go back. Exxon has said its talks with Moscow are about being compensated for the 30 per cent Sakhalin-1 stake Russia took, and chief executive Darren Woods has said: “We don’t have any plans to re-enter Russia.” Exxon gave the FT no immediate reply this time. Boeing, which the FT said suspended a Russian titanium venture after the invasion, declined to comment. The FT’s US official source made every economic idea conditional on ending the war, adding that “nothing is finalised.”
Moscow offered no response to the paper. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, did not reply to the FT’s request, and Kirill Dmitriev’s office said it would not comment. The FT itself judged that many of the deals “face long odds,” in part because of “US companies’ wariness about re-entering the Russian market.”
Who is Geoffrey Pyatt, and why is he skeptical?
Pyatt is a former career member of the US foreign service. According to his Atlantic Council biography, he took the oath as assistant secretary on September 19, 2022, having served as US ambassador to Ukraine from 2013 to 2016 and to Greece from 2016 to 2022. He is now a distinguished fellow at the council’s Global Energy Center.
The council’s biography adds that Pyatt “also chairs the advisory council for DTEK, one of Ukraine’s largest private energy companies.”
The FT said he doubted that any big listed company would be keen to go back in the current climate. Someone who served in Trump’s administration offered the FT a similar judgment on previous peace efforts: “None of this ever had a chance of becoming real.”
What did Western companies lose leaving Russia?
More than $107 billion by early 2024, according to a Reuters analysis of filings and company statements. Reuters counted about 1,000 companies that had left.
| Company | Reported cost of leaving Russia |
|---|---|
| BP | $24 billion charge (2022) |
| Shell | Up to $5 billion writedown (2022 guidance) |
| ExxonMobil | $3.4 billion item (Exxon); $4.6 billion impairment (Reuters) |
| Danone | $1.3 billion total loss (2024) |
| All foreign firms | More than $107 billion (Reuters tally, March 2024) |
The Exxon line shows how even a single loss can be reported two ways. Exxon’s results described “an unfavorable identified item of $3.4 billion” tied to its planned Sakhalin-1 exit, while Reuters has reported “a $4.6 billion impairment charge.” Our piece on Exxon’s Sakhalin-1 stake covers that case in detail.
How did Russia take over Western companies’ assets?
By decree. Since 2022 Moscow has seized foreign-run projects outright or placed foreign-owned businesses under what it calls “temporary management.”
- October 2022: a Putin decree seized the Sakhalin-1 oil project, where Exxon had been operator.
- April 2023: Moscow seized control of the Russian subsidiaries of two energy groups, Uniper of Germany and Fortum of Finland.
- July 2023: a decree placed foreign-owned stakes in Danone Russia and Carlsberg’s Baltika Breweries under the state property agency. Carlsberg said it had “not received any official information from the Russian authorities regarding the presidential decree.”
Reuters reported in 2024 that Austria’s OMV was also on the list of companies whose assets Moscow had taken temporary control of. Ian Massey of the risk consultancy S-RM told Reuters: “There are no Western assets in Russia that can be considered safe or ringfenced so long as the Kremlin continues to wage war.”
What does it cost a company to leave Russia now?
Most of what it owns. By 2024, Reuters reported, Moscow was demanding discounts of at least 50 per cent on sales by foreign owners and sometimes accepted one rouble as payment.
Rules updated in October 2024 went further, according to the law firm Linklaters:
- A seller has to accept a price cut of 60% or more.
- Sellers pay a “voluntary” exit tax of 35%, up from 15%.
- Deals worth more than 50 billion roubles need Putin’s personal approval.
Linklaters concluded that foreign investors “will not recover more than 5% of their Russian assets’ value” unless a government sub-commission allows more or the buyer pays the tax. It described exits as “progressively costlier, more burdensome and more complex to achieve.”
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Which US companies stayed in Russia?
Few large ones in energy. Halliburton said in March 2022 that it would wind down its Russian operations; Baker Hughes declined to comment on its Russia business at the time.
SLB, the oilfield services company formerly called Schlumberger, stayed. Reuters called it “one of the few Western firms to remain in Russia” in a January 2025 report, which put Russia’s share of SLB revenue at 4% for 2024, compared with 5% a year earlier. SLB says its Russian operations comply with US sanctions, and it said in July 2023 that it was halting all shipments of its products and technology to the country.
Critics have pressed the company. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, said a reasonable reading of Treasury guidance “would mean getting U.S. oilfield services companies out of Russia.” Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention has labeled SLB an “international sponsor of war” over its Russian business, the Kyiv Independent reported in 2024.
Will US companies return to Russia if sanctions ease?
Moscow says it wants them back, and US law currently stands in the way. Russia has said it would welcome back companies that pulled out, Reuters reported. “Believe me, there is more than one corporation that is interested in reincarnating its presence on the Russian market,” Peskov told RBC radio in 2025.
Any return would run into sanctions first. On October 22, 2025, Treasury added Rosneft and Lukoil to its sanctions list, and its rules extend the block to any firm in which the pair hold a stake of 50 percent or more. Our summary of the FT report lists the proposals under discussion, and our titanium piece covers Boeing’s former Russian venture.
Under the October 2024 rules that Linklaters described, a foreign seller leaving Russia owes a 35% exit tax.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are US companies going back to Russia?
As of October 28, no major US company had announced a return. ExxonMobil’s chief executive has ruled out going back, and Boeing declined to comment to the FT. Officials in Washington and Moscow have talked about postwar business ventures, according to the FT, though the US side says no deal is final.
How much did Western companies lose leaving Russia?
A Reuters analysis in March 2024 put foreign companies’ writedowns and lost revenue from exiting Russia at more than $107 billion. BP alone took a $24 billion charge in 2022.
What does Russia charge foreign companies to leave?
Under rules reported by the law firm Linklaters in November 2024, assets must be sold at a discount of at least 60%, and sellers pay a so-called voluntary exit tax of 35%. Linklaters said that means sellers generally recover no more than 5% of their assets’ value.
Which US companies stayed in Russia?
Oilfield services company SLB is one of the few Western firms that stayed. It said in January 2025 that its Russia business complied with new US sanctions; Russia accounted for 4% of its revenue in 2024. Halliburton wound down its Russian operations in 2022.
Who is Geoffrey Pyatt?
He was the Biden administration’s assistant secretary of state for energy resources from 2022 and earlier US ambassador to Ukraine and Greece. He is now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and chairs the advisory council of the Ukrainian energy company DTEK.
Sources
- Washington discusses Russian deals for US oil majors in Ukraine peace talks — Financial Times, October 27, 2026
- Treasury Sanctions Major Russian Oil Companies, Calls on Moscow to Immediately Agree to Ceasefire — U.S. Department of the Treasury, October 22, 2025
- Geoffrey Pyatt — Atlantic Council, expert profile, accessed October 2026
- Foreign firms’ losses from exiting Russia top US$107b — Reuters (via Malay Mail), March 28, 2024
- Moscow Takes Control Of Danone’s Russian Subsidiary, Carlsberg’s Stake In Brewer — ESM Magazine (Reuters), July 17, 2023
- Leaving Russia: Here’s Your 5%, Leave the Rest — Linklaters, November 2024
- BP’s Profit Soars to Highest in Over Decade — Reuters (via Offshore Engineer), May 3, 2022
- Shell Raises Russia Writedown to as Much as $5B — Reuters (via Offshore Engineer), April 7, 2022
- ExxonMobil Announces First-Quarter 2022 Results — ExxonMobil earnings release (via BOE Report), April 29, 2022
- Russia Gives ExxonMobil More Time to Exit Sakhalin-1 Oil and Gas Project — Reuters (via Offshore Engineer), December 2025
- Halliburton, Schlumberger Suspend Operations in Russia amid U.S. Sanctions — Reuters (via Offshore Engineer), March 18, 2022
- SLB says its Russia business aligns with new US sanctions as revenue drops — Reuters (via Yahoo Finance), January 17, 2025
- US oil group expands in Russia as Western rivals leave, FT reports — Kyiv Independent (reporting the Financial Times), August 15, 2024
- Kremlin says Exxon is not the only company interested in returning to Russia — Reuters (via Oil & Gas 360), September 2025
- Exxon CEO Confirms No Plans to Return to Russia — The Gaze (relaying the Financial Times), September 2025
This article is news reporting and analysis based on the public sources listed above, as they stood on the dates shown. Where officials, lawmakers or analysts disagree, including on whether an action is lawful, their positions are attributed to them; Donald Trump Class Action is not a court and nothing here is legal advice. Facts in a developing story can change.