ExxonMobil, the American oil and gas giant, reportedly engaged in “secret talks” earlier this year with Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned energy company, to explore a potential roadmap for reviving joint ventures in offshore oil and gas fields in Russia’s Far East. According to the Wall Street Journal, the discussions involved senior executives from both firms and centered on a possible return to the Sakhalin Project — a major oil and gas development on Sakhalin Island and in the Sea of Okhotsk — contingent on approval from Washington and Moscow as part of a potential deal to end the war in Ukraine.