经济学人172:埃克森险地告捷

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　　商业报道

　　Oil in Russia

　　俄罗斯石油

　　Exxonerated

　　埃克森险地告捷

　　Where BP failed, Exxon succeeds

　　英石油铩羽之地见证埃克森的成功

　　FOR BP it could hardly have been worse.

　　对英国石油公司而言，这真是糟糕透顶的消息。

　　On August 30th Exxon Mobil struck a deal with Rosneft to explore the same icy blocks of the Arctic Kara Sea that slipped from BP's grasp when its vaunted tie-up with the Russian state-controlled oil firm collapsed¹ in the spring.

　　8月30日，埃克森美孚与俄石油公司达成协议，共同开采英石油错失的位于北极克拉海的石油。这正是春季英石油曾自吹与俄国有石油公司结成联盟最后却告吹的那场交易中所谈的同一片冰山海域。

　　Then things did get worse: the next day, one of BP's Moscow offices was raided by bailiffs.

　　屋漏偏遭连夜雨，第二天，英石油在莫斯科的办事处遭法警的查抄。

　　The deal is a triumph for Exxon,

　　协议的签署对埃克森美孚来说是个胜利。

　　giving it access to one of oil's richest frontiers, with none of the nasty add-ons that tripped up BP.

　　不用接受任何当时附加在英石油身上的苛刻条款，埃克森得以开采世界上石油资源最丰富的一个地区。

　　The British firm's proposed link with Rosneft would have meant giving the Russian firm 5% of its shares, an arrangement that BP's existing Russian partner, AAR, objected to.

　　英国石油公司原计划给俄罗斯公司5%的股份，这一协议遭到英国石油公司现在的俄方合作伙伴AAR的反对。

　　AAR took legal action and successfully blocked the deal.

　　AAR采取法律行动，成功地阻止了这一交易。

　　Exxon, in contrast, is neither swapping² shares nor violating any previous agreement.

　　对比之下，埃克森公司既没有交换股份，也没有违反此前任何协定。

　　It has pledged to spend $2.2 billion exploring the potentially oil-rich Kara and $1 billion prospecting³ in the Black Sea.

　　埃克森保证将耗资22亿美元用于在潜在的富油的喀拉海进行勘察、并花费10亿美元用于黑海勘探。

　　In return, it will allow Rosneft to take minority stakes in its deep-water projects in the Gulf⁴ of Mexico and onshore in Texas.

　　作为回报，它将允许俄罗斯石油公司在墨西哥海湾和德克萨斯陆上的深水项目中取得少量股权。

　　If all goes well, Exxon's total investment in Russian Arctic oil could run into hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade.

　　如果一切顺利，埃克森公司在俄罗斯北极地区石油上的全部投资十年内累计将达成千上万亿美元。

　　a figure Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, at a ceremony to launch the deal, described as “scary to utter”.

　　俄罗斯总理普京在启动交易的仪式上用“说出来吓人一跳”来描述这一数字。

　　Whether such terrifying sums materialise will depend partly on the financial terms of Arctic exploration and the Kremlin's flexibility⁵ over the tax status of the project.

　　这笔天文数字款项能否成为现实将部分取决于北极勘察的财务条款以及克里姆林宫对这一项目税务状况的灵活性。

　　These are yet to be decided⁶.

　　这还是悬而未决的事情。

　　Yet Exxon's plans already look more promising⁷ than BP's did.

　　但埃克森当前的情况就已经比当时的英石油要乐观得多。

　　When announcing that proposal, Bob Dudley, BP's boss, trumpeted⁸ his knowledge of Russian politics.

　　在宣布计划时，英国石油公司老板鲍伯·杜德利吹嘘其对俄罗斯政治的了解。

　　In fact it was BP's misjudgment of Russian politics and corporate⁹ culture that did for the deal.

　　实际上，正是英石油公司对俄罗斯政治以及公司文化的错误判断葬送了这笔交易。

　　Mr Dudley wrongly believed that getting into bed with a powerful Kremlin firm would cow his existing oligarch partners.

　　鲍伯·杜德利错误地认为与强势的国有公司建立起亲密关系就能震慑这个寡头合作伙伴。

　　Having now alienated¹⁰ both, BP appears to have little protection against being pushed around in Russia—as the raid on its offices may suggest.

　　现在“成功”地疏远了双方，在俄罗斯，英石油任由摆布毫无应对之策—正如其办事处遭查抄表明的那样。

　　To Exxon's great advantage, its deal is more important to Russia, which desperately¹¹ needs foreign investment and expertise¹² in its oil industry,

　　这笔交易除了给埃克森带来巨大好处之外，对于在石油工业极度需要外国投资和专门技术的俄罗斯而言，

　　than it is for Exxon, the world's biggest private oil firm.

　　显然比世界最大私人石油公司更为重要。

　　Rosneft's share price jumped 8% after the announcement.

　　在交易公告发布之后，俄罗斯石油公司的股票价格上涨了8%。

　　Exxon's shareholders¹⁴ were less giddy, perhaps reflecting on the pitfalls¹⁵ of doing business in Russia.

　　埃克森的股东们却不怎么敢轻举妄动，这可能反映了在俄罗斯做生意常有意想不到的陷阱。

　　They have experienced them.

　　他们是过来人。

　　In 2003 Exxon considered buying a large stake in Yukos, then Russia's largest oil firm.

　　2003年，埃克森曾考虑购买俄罗斯当时最大石油公司—尤科斯的大量股份。

　　Yet shortly after Lee Raymond, Exxon's chief executive, flew to Moscow to negotiate the deal with Mr Putin,

　　然而就在埃克森的总裁飞往莫斯科与普京谈判之后不久，

　　Yukos's main shareholder¹³, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested, Yukos was dismantled¹⁶ and its assets were swallowed by Rosneft.

　　尤科斯的主要股东霍多尔科夫斯基被捕，尤科斯被拆散，其财产遭俄罗斯石油公司吞并。

　　That outrage¹⁷ could yet cast a shadow over the Exxon deal in America, where politicians continue to condemn¹⁸ the Kremlin over it.

　　在美国，俄罗斯的那种骇人听闻的做法到目前为止可能还在埃克森石油交易投下阴影。

　　Indeed, this may be one reason why Igor Sechin, Mr Putin's right-hand man, who oversaw¹⁹ the destruction of Yukos and the Exxon deal, has kept away from America.

　　美国的政治家们依然还在谴责那一行径。实际上，这或许是普京的得力助手、监管尤科斯公司破产以及埃克森交易的伊戈尔·谢钦与美国保持距离的原因。

　　But American oil firms are a different matter: as Exxon has shown, so long as you sit on colossal²⁰ oil reserves, they will always be happy to do business.

　　但是美国石油公司是另一码事：正如埃克森公司表明的那样，只要你还有巨大的石油储量，他们就一直乐于跟你做生意。

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