Do Vlad and Rex Have the Arctic In Their Crosshairs?

They're not blood brothers but they're close. Russian strongman, Vlad Putin, and Trump's choice for Secretary of State, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, have been buddies for a while.

If Tillerson can get Trump to lift US sanctions against Russia, it could be gravy train time, Arctic style, for Exxon Mobil.

Exxon Mobil stands to regain access to huge reserves of oil if the United States rolls back sanctions on Russia.

U.S. sanctions on Russia have prevented Exxon Mobil from exploring assets covering 63.6 million acres. The prospect of rapprochement between the U.S. and Russia remains speculative, but both President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have said they want to improve relations. The two countries' relationship fell apart after Russia took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then intervened in civil wars in Ukraine and Syria.

Tillerson has criticized U.S. sanctions on Russia and was awarded Russia's Order of Friendship by Putin in 2013. To be sure, as Exxon's chief executive, Tillerson's priority has been to his shareholders, and he has sought to protect the company's substantial interests in Russia.

Exxon's operations in Russia represent only a fraction of its global oil and gas production, but a joint venture with Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft to explore and produce fossil fuels in Arctic waters represents a big part of Exxon's potential future production growth