MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Rosneft will continue geological explorations in the Arctic offshore zone after ExxonMobil quits the joint projects with the Russian state oil company, Natural Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy told reporters.

"The Arctic licenses will remain with Rosneft," Donskoy said adding that the company "plans to continue to operate there".

Earlier, Exxon Mobil said in its annual report sent to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had to start the procedure of quitting joint oil prospecting projects with Russia’s Rosneft. According to the document, the company will sustain net loss of $0.2 billion as a result.

The company decided to withdraw from the joint projects with Rosneft in late 2017 after Washington issued a legal act expanding against Russia.

According to the document, in 2013 and 2014 Exxon Mobil and Rosneft created various entities for operations in oil exploration. In particular, the two companies agreed to work together on the shelf of the Kara Sea, the Chukchi Sea, the Laptev Sea and the Black Sea.

Nothing is said in the report that the company also plans to quit the joint projects with Rosneft, where agreements were concluded before 2013 and 2014.

In July 2017, it became known that the US Treasury Department charged ExxonMobil with a $2 mln fine over violation of the anti-Russian sanctions Washington had imposed earlier. The company’s management disagreed with that decision and announced its intention to dispute it.