Exxon Fracking Siberia to Help Putin Maintain Oil Clout

Russian President Vladimir Putin is counting on Exxon Mobil Corp. to help drill oil fields in Siberia that may hold almost half the proved reserves of the U.S., extending the petroleum boom that underpins his power.

Russia, having slipped behind Saudi Arabia last year as the biggest crude producer, is looking to use Exxon’s technology in a venture with the Kremlin-run oil company OAO Rosneft to wring “tight oil” from the Bazhenov shale formation in west Siberia. They plan pilot wells to locate deposits that Rosneft said may hold 13.2 billion barrels of oil, a prospect needed for Russia to keep supplying 16 percent of global exports another decade.