Since January, Maduro’s administration has been in talks with allies in Moscow about ways to circumvent a ban on clients paying PDVSA in dollars, the sources said. Russia has publicly said the U.S. sanctions are illegal and it would work with Venezuela to weather them.

ROSNEFT - Financial results for 12M 2018 and 4Q 2018 EBITDA growth by 1.5 times YoY up to RUB 2 trln with margins improvement up to 25% Net Income jumped by 2.5 times YoY up to RUB 549 bln in 12M 2018 Fee cash flow in 12M 2018 up to USD 17.9 bln Drop over USD 14 bln of total trading prepayments and net debt

ROSNEFT - Hydrocarbon production amounted to 285.5 mln toe (5.80 mmboed) in 2018, exceeded 2017 levels by 1.3%. Q4 2018 hydrocarbon production amounted to 73.7 mln toe (5.94 mmboed), which exceeded the Q3 2018 result by 1.8%.

ROSNEFT - As of 31.12.2018, Rosneft SEC proven hydrocarbon reserves were 41,431 mmboe (5,597 mmtoe)*. The hydrocarbon reserves increased by 1,524 mmboe (202 mln toe) versus reserves as of 2017 end or by 4%.

REUTERS - The country’s oil production has fallen to just 1.17 million barrels-per-day, a 37 percent drop in the last year, according to reports from secondary sources to OPEC, leaving itstruggling to ship Russian entities the roughly 380,000 bpd it has agreed to send, according to PDVSA

ROSNEFT - 3Q 2018 EBITDA growth by 13.8% QoQ up to RUB 643 bln, 9M 2018 EBITDA growth by 1.6 times YoY up to RUB 1,593 bln with margins improvement 9M 2018 Net Income jumped by 3.4 times YoY up to RUB 451 bln Free Cash Flow improvement in 3Q 2018 by more than 2 times QoQ up to RUB 509 bln and over 4 times YoY up to RUB 872 bln

ROSNEFT - Q3 2018 AVERAGE DAILY HYDROCARBON PRODUCTION REACHED 5.83 MMBOE, DEMONSTRATING A 2.1% GROWTH VS. Q2 2018 LEVEL

REUTERS - Russia’s Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and U.S. ExxonMobil (XOM.N) plan to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in a consortium with Indian and Japanese partners, spreading the estimated $15 billion cost, two sources familiar with the talks said.

BLOOMBERG - Russia has begun discussions with Exxon Mobil Corp. on possible new oil and gas projects, potentially creating a dilemma as the U.S. government mulls more sanctions against the country.

PLATTS - "If sanctions were put on Rosneft or Lukoil or Gazprom, like what happened to Rusal, you would virtually shut down the energy systems of Europe," Dudley said.