After nearly a year since Chevron and Rosneft announced plans to jointly explore in the Russian sector of the Black Sea, it has been reported that Chevron will exit the venture. Under the original terms of the agreement Chevron would acquire a 33.3% interest in exchange for funding US$1 billion in spending during the exploratory phase and payment of a cash bonus to Rosneft in the event that reserves were discovered.
From the start the venture agreement was conditional on receiving "fiscal relief" from the Russian government. The desired relief was to be in addition to the already agreed exemption from the mineral extraction tax of the first 20 million tonnes of oil produced.