ExxonMobil

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview published Tuesday that he did not want or seek the position and only took it because his wife convinced him to do it.

“I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job,” Tillerson told IJR in an interview with the sole reporter allowed to accompany him on his recent Asia trip. “My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.”

Cyprus’s cabinet on Friday approved contracts with France’s Total, Italy’s Eni , Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum to explore for oil and gas in offshore areas south of the island, officials said.

The discovery of natural resources in Israel and Egypt has motivated big companies to look into the Eastern Mediterranean closer. The French oil exploration company Total is ready to start exploratory marine drilling off Cyprus.

France's Total is preparing to drill for gas off Cyprus, close to ENI's huge Zohr discovery off the Egyptian coast which in 2015 renewed interest among oil majors for exploration in the Mediterranean.

Cyprus awarded ENI, Total and ExxonMobil exploration licenses near the Zohr field in December.

Prospective U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson better watch his mouth, angry Chinese media said Jan. 13, warning U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee that his threats to block China in the South China Sea are fighting words.

Former Exxon-Mobil CEO and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, has urged the United States to re-engage with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to acquire a seat at the Syria and Middle East table.

The discovery of natural gas is a significant incentive to get Ankara's backing for a resolution to the Cyprus issue, says the country's President Nicos Anastasiades, who believes that the prospect of using some of the fuel lying beneath the seabed off the island's shores to cover a large part of Turkey's energy needs and transform the country into a regional energy hub could convince Turkish P

Cyprus's newly-discovered wealth of offshore natural gas could boost the prospects for a peace settlement on the divided island, President Nicos Anastasiades has said a few days after Nicosia said it had picked Eni, Total and ExxonMobil for three exploration licenses.

Oil major BP has agreed with Azerbaijan to extend a contract to develop the country's biggest fields by a quarter of a century to 2050 in a move to unlock billions of dollars of fresh investments in the Caspian Sea deposits.