their highest levels in five years. May 20: In New York City, the United Nations and Iraq agree to U.N. Resolution 986. The agreement comes following months of heated negotiations. Iraqi oil exports are expected to begin by the Autumn of 1996, after a pumping station on the Iraq-Turkey pipeline is repaired and U.N monitoring and aid distribution facilities are put in place. Shortly after the agreement, the White House announces its decision to allow U.S. oil companies to purchase Iraqi oil exports. June 11: Exxon states that it will soon begin work on its $15-billion Sakhalin I oil and natural gas development in Russia's far East. The Sakhalin I project will develop an estimated of oil and of gas located in three offshore hydrocarbon fields. The $300 million appraisal program will include drilling one exploration well and conducting a 3-D seismic survey. The U.S. company says that it will start working despite ongoing differences with the Russian government over the country's new production sharing law, which is widely viewed as not offering adequate legal protection for foreign investment in the country's oil and gas sectors. June 20: The Venezuelan Congress approves eight, multibillion-dollar, profit-sharing deals which allow foreign oil companies to explore and produce oil in Venezuela for the first time since the country's 1975 nationalization of the oil industry. The deals could boost Venezuela's current oil production by by 2005. Foreign oil companies such as Amoco and British Petroleum are expected to sign final deals with state-owned PdVSA within 10 days and may begin working on their new area by the third quarter of 1996. The eight blocks are estimated to hold between 7 and of light crude oil reserves. July 7: OPEC issues a resolution announcing Gabon's withdrawal from the organization, effective January 1, 1997. Gabon had an OPEC quota of . July 18: The United Nations formally approves an Iraqi aid distribution plan, a major step forward in the direction of allowing Iraq to sell oil under Resolution 986. August 6: U.S. President Bill Clinton signs a new bill imposing sanctions on non-U.S. companies which invest over $40 million a year in the energy sectors of either Iran or Libya. Under the law, the President would be required to impose at least two of the following sanctions: import and export bans; lending embargoes from U.S. banks; a ban on U.S. procurement of goods and services from