In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

Exxon and Russian oil giant Rosneft entered a joint venture in 2012 to develop offshore reserves in the Arctic Kara Sea and the Black Sea, as well as onshore assets in Siberia. Those deals, which represent a big part of Exxon's potential future production growth, were halted by U.S. sanctions. 
  
 Exxon said in a filing after the sanctions were put in place that its "maximum before-tax exposure to loss from these joint ventures" totaled $1 billion through the end of 2015. 
  
 The U.S. energy giant is concerned that European competitors still operating in Russia will gain an advantage in the Black Sea, a source briefed on its waiver application told The Wall Street Journal this week. The company also faces a contractual deadline to make an oil discovery there by the end of the year, the paper reported. 
  
 Exxon said in a statement on Friday: "We understand the statement today by Secretary Mnuchin in consultation with President Trump. Our 2015 application for a license under the provisions outlined in the U.S. sanctions was made to enable our company to meet its contractual obligations under a joint venture agreement in Russia, where competitor companies are authorized to undertake such work under European sanctions." 
  
 The news of Exxon's effort to re-enter Russia drew swift criticism from both sides of the aisle. 
  
 Sen. John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, linked to the Journal story on Exxon's waiver application in a tweet and asked, "Are they crazy?" 
  
 In a statement to CNBC on Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio said, "While a waiver to allow business with prohibited Russian entities may be in Exxon-Mobil's interest, it would clearly not be in America's national security interest." 
  
 Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday said the deals that Exxon sought "would put money in the pockets of Russian oligarchs and the Russian treasury, guaranteed to be used against America, our interests, and our allies." ||||| Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a press release “the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon.” | Getty Treasury denies Exxon waiver from Russian sanctions 
  
 The Trump administration said Friday that it would not grant a waiver from Russian sanctions to Exxon Mobil or any other energy companies. 
  
 The Treasury Department announcement follows reports that Exxon had been seeking such a waiver to drill in the Black Sea. It comes as the FBI and congressional intelligence committees investigate Russian hacking aimed at disrupting the last election and potential contact with members of President Donald Trump's campaign. 
  
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 Exxon had a partnership with Russia’s state-owned Rosneft dating back to 2011 that started to yield oil just before the Obama administration set the sanctions in 2014 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson now heads the State Department, but had promised to step aside from decisions involving his previous employer. 
  
 The company had sought waivers since 2015 and received permission to maintain a small office in Russia to ensure it did not lose drilling rights under the partnership. Current and former officials at the State Department had said it was unclear whether the oil major was still pushing to expand its activities there. 
  
 “In consultation with President Donald J. Trump, the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon, authorizing drilling prohibited by current Russian sanctions,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the one-sentence press release Friday. 
  
 Pursuing the waiver would have been politically sensitive and possibly have had more potential cons for Exxon and the Trump administration than pros, said Jim Krane, fellow in energy geopolitics at Rice University's Baker Institute. 
  
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 “There seems to be very little upside to singling out Exxon Mobil and Russia for special treatment,” Krane said. “It would give Russia political and commercial leverage over one of America’s biggest and most politically connected companies, which implies heightened Russian influence in the Trump administration. A Trump administration approval of a waiver would thus reek of conflict of interest.” 
  
 While Tillerson has recused himself from matters involving Exxon, the State Department along with the Treasury Department would be responsible for granting any waiver for the energy company to operate in Russia while sanctions are in place. ||||| United States and European sanctions were first imposed on Russia in March 2014 in response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Exxon Mobil signed an expansion of its joint venture projects anyway, even after Igor I. Sechin, Rosneft’s chief executive, was personally blacklisted in connection with the sanctions. 
  
 The deal was legal, but Exxon Mobil was more fully constrained when tighter sanctions were imposed after Russia was implicated that summer in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine. 
  
 It has become increasingly clear in recent days that relations between the United States and Russia are unlikely to improve any time soon. Mr. Tillerson has used increasingly tough talk to highlight the Trump administration’s differences with Russia over its alliance with the Syrian government. He has not suggested that any sanctions be lifted, and the administration has affirmed its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European security. 
  
 Exxon Mobil’s hopes to produce new oil in Arctic waters and in Siberian shale fields were delayed indefinitely by the toughened sanctions, which prohibited transfers of drilling technology capable of reaching oil in fields that previously had been virtually inaccessible. The company received a few exceptions to the sanctions, including a waiver in late 2014 that allowed it complete drilling of one exploration well in the frigid Kara Sea that it said would be unsafe to leave half finished. A big oil field was confirmed, but no new oil was produced and exported. 
  
 Exxon Mobil has long argued that it was being put at a disadvantage against some of its European competitors operating in Russia. ENI, the Italian oil giant, plans to drill this year in the Black Sea, a largely untapped area with enormous oil reserve potential. 
  
 European sanctions are somewhat weaker than those imposed by the United States since they exempted some contracts signed before the sanctions were put in place. The American sanctions drew a harder line. 
  
 Exxon Mobil’s drilling rights in the Black Sea were part of a sweeping strategic partnership Exxon Mobil developed with Rosneft in 2011 while Mr. Tillerson was in charge of the American company. The agreement came at a time when the Obama administration was seeking to improve relations with Russia, and several Western oil companies expanded their operations. |||||
The US government won't be granting Exxon Mobil a waiver from Russian sanctions, Politico reports. It had been reported this week that the oil and gas company was seeking a waiver to allow it to drill in the Black Sea. The refusal of that waiver came Friday in the form of a one-sentence press release from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who added that no US companies will be given a waiver from Russian sanctions. The sanctions were put in place in 2014 by the Obama administration after Russia invaded Ukraine. They interrupted a partnership between Exxon and Russia's state-owned Rosneft. Exxon's apparent request for a waiver was condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike, CNBC reports. For example, John McCain's response was a succinct, "Are they crazy?" It also put the Trump administration in a tough spot between continuing reports of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign and former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson's new gig as Secretary of State, according to the New York Times. An expert in energy geopolitics says had the waiver been granted, it may have ended up being bad, at least in terms of optics, for both the Trump administration and Exxon. The denial of the waiver comes with Trump apparently cooling on Russia and its president.