Russia Business Directory

The last years have seen the continuing growth of the oil production, increase of petroleum products output and increase in natural gas production in Russia. This tendency started in 2003–2004. In 2006 Russian total liquids production averaged almost 9.7 million bbl/d, including 9.2 million bbl/d of crude oil, a 220,000 bbl/d increase over 2005. At the same time, growth rates of the oil extraction plunged. Oil extraction growth including gas condensate in 2006 in comparison with the previous year amounted to only 2.3 %.

Leaders in additional crude oil output in 2006 as compared to 2005 were Rosneft (Yuganskneftegaz), foreign owned projects (Salym, Sakhalin-1, Kharyaga), Lukoil, TNK-BP, and Surgutneftegaz with 4.5%, 3.0%, 2.6% 2,0% and 1.6% growth relatively. New projects introduced by foreign investors in Russian oil and gas sector in 2006 have resulted in total production of oil products in amount of 3 million tonnes. Without these projects; the growth of oil production in Russia would have reached only 1.6 % instead of 2.2 %.
Oil extraction growth including gas condensate in January-May 2007 in comparison with the previous year amounted to 3.2%.

In Russian post-Yukos oil sector Rosneft became the new industry leader. Major part of Rosneft oil extraction in 2006 totalling 80.8 million tonnes (1.6 million bbl/d) was done by Yuganskneftegas, which was separated from YUKOS and attached to Rosneft in the end of 2004. Yuganskneftegas oil under Rosneft ownership had improved it’s performance in 2006.
The share of Gazprom on Russia’s oil market sharply increased in 2005 resulting from acquiring Sibneft. But in 2006 total liquids production in Gazprom Neft dropped by 1.3% compared to December 2005.

The share of oil produced by state companies (Rosneft and Gazprom including Sibneft) on Russia’s oil market increased to 32 % in 2006. The share of private oil companies accounts to 42 % of oil production in the country in 2006.

According to official Russian statistics, roughly 4 million of total liquids production is crude oil. Over 70 percent of Russian crude oil production is exported, while the remaining 30 percent is refined locally. Crude oil exports via pipeline fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of Russia's state-owned pipeline monopoly, Transneft. Export of crude oil, which constituted nearly three quarters of the overall export of oil and petroleum products, dominated in the structure of the oil export with certain increase of the share of petroleum products. Fuel oil and diesel oil constituted major share in the export of petroleum products.

Gazprom dominated in Russian gas sector with 656,2 billion m3 produced in 2006. Its share in the all Russia gas production amounted to 84.7 % in 2006. However production growth in Gasprom amounted to only 0.4% in 2006, while independent gas producers experienced production growth by 13.6% during same period. However, the share of oil companies in gas production remains low. Surgutneftegas, Rosneft and TNK-BP remain the largest gas producers among the oil companies.

One of the challenges is that the biggest gas deposits in the West Siberia are almost worked out (Medvezhye by 75,6%, Urengoy by 65,4%, Yamburg by 54,1%). The most prospective area is still Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District where 72% of all deposits are concentrated, as well as seas in the North of Russia.

Sources: report “Russian Economy in 2005”, by Institute for the Economy in Transition (Moscow); Federal State Statistics Service (Russia); Energy Information Administration, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, official energy statistics from U.S. Government; Business News Agency PRIME-TASS.

General information
Ministry for Natural Resources of Russia - official site, activities, detailed information about Russia’s natural resources (eng)

Ministry for Industry and Energy of Russia - official site (eng), containing a limited amount of official information and documents, compared to the Russian version where you will find updated status reports from all industrial sectors, statistics, news etc.

Neftegaz.ru – news, analysis, industry’s key persons, company profiles, catalogues and much more about Russian oil and gas industry (eng/rus). 

Oil and Gas Vertical – news and analysis of the industry, though more seldom updated than the above (eng)

Oil & Energy News  - media monitoring service delivered by Barents Observer, run by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat (eng)

News from Russian Oil and Gas Industry – limited edition of the Russian version. The latter is probably one of the best website about Russian oil and gas industry, offering both daily updated news, a comprehensive database of oil and gas companies and key persons, updated statistics, information about ongoing and planned oil and gas projects in Russia, vacancies, analysis etc.

Seismic news and information from Murmansk - most of information is in Russian, there several sections in English giving presentations of the companies, seismic vessels and career opportunities.

Analysis and Project Information
Reports on Energy Sector – an industry reports page prepared by BISNIS, covering last trends and news in the countries of the former Soviet Union, hereunder Russia(eng)

Brief Oil Industry Analysis - (by the U.S. Department of Energy) (eng)

Oil & Gas Tax Guide to Russia – a brief overview of a tax guide prepared by Ernst & Young. The brochure can be ordered from E&Y, Russia (eng)

Oil and Gas Service – media monitoring with oil and gas news (ru).

Sakhalin 1 Project – official site of Sakhalin 1 Project, provided by Exxon Neftegas Limited (eng).

Sakhalin 2 Project – official site of Sakhalin 2 Project, provided by Sakhalin Energy Company. Essential information about the area and resources, and of course, about the project.

Gazprom projects in North-Western Russia – an overview by Biznis (Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States), updated per January, 2005 (eng)

Major Russian Oil & Naturar Gas Pipeline Projects – a comprehensive overview prepared by the US Government (eng) 

Russian offshore oil and gas resources - an article about environmental impact of Russian oil and gas industry, published by Ecomonitor (en)

Conferences and Events

Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and Exhibition (SPE)- website of Oil and Gas International Exhibition in Moscow, next event is scheduled for 20-30 October 2008 (eng)
MIOGE - Moscow International Oil and Gas Exhibition, in 2007, the event took place 26-29 June.

Russian and Norwegian associations

Union of Suppliers of Equipment for Oil and Gas Industry - a short presentation of the association, contact information and member profiles. On the Russian version of the website you will in addition find domestic and international news from the industry.
Assoneft ( Moscow) – an association of over 50 independent private oil and gas producers, mostly small and medium-sized (en).
Intsok - Norwegian Oil and Gas Partners – Norwegian Association of Oil and Gas Enterprises publishes industry news on its website for open access. Some information is for members only (eng)

Companies
Gazprom (Moscow)- the world’s largest gas producing company, accounting for 20% of the total world production and controlling 60% of gas reserves (eng)
ITERA Group (Moscow/Siberia) – a group of companies, one of the largest independent producers and traders of natural gas in the CIS and the Baltic states. The group is working on the deposits in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, Western Siberia (eng)
Lukoil (Moscow) - one of the world's biggest vertically integrated companies for production and refining of crude oil & gas and refining; Russia's second largest oil company (eng)
Ritek – an abbreviation for “Russian Innovation Technical Company”, involved in oil and gas exploration in the Western Siberia and Tatarstan (rus)
Rosneft (Moscow) – vertically-integrated oil and gas company with upstream and downstream operations in all Russia’s oil-producing regions, owns and operates two refineries. State-owned per august 2006, with plans for IPOs (eng)
Yukos (Moscow) – former oil giant, which for many years has been one of the world's largest non-state oil companies both by reserves and market capitalization. Head of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now serving sentence in jail, has become a symbol of the conflict between the Russian Government and the Oligarchs (eng)
TNK-BP (Moscow/Tyumen) - Russia’s second largest vertically integrated oil company (in terms of production), operating six refineries in Russia and Ukraine and more than 2,100 filling stations across the two countries (eng)
Rusneft (Moscow) – Russia’s youngest vertically integrated company (est.2002), operating at Russian and world crude oil markets (eng)
Surgutneftegaz (Surgut) – one of the largest oil companies in Russia, accounting for about 13% of Russia’s total oil production (en)
Zarubezhneft (Moscow)- a company authorized by Russian govt to control sharing agreements in subsoil areas and hydrocarbon fields. Mainly involved in projects in Asia and CIS, as well as in Prirazlomnoye deposit and several other projects in Russia.
Novatek (Moscow) - Russia’s largest independent gas producer and second largest natural gas producer (eng).
PetroAlliance (Moscow) - one of Russia's largest service companies, providing a broad range of exploration and development services for oil and gas fields, offering seismic works, field modelling, IT and drilling support etc.
Tatneft (Almetyevsk, Tatarstan) – a vertically integrated oil company, includes an oil-and-gas producing complex, oil & gas processing and petrochemical facilities (eng)

Paid resources
Oil & Gas news - by Prime-Tass, subscription required (eng)

Russian Petroleum Investor is the major English language publication covering the oil and gas businesses in Russia and Central Asia. The website gives a free synopsis of articles, but articles in full are available by subscription only. The publication is run by RPI, a major energy consultancy firm based in California (eng/rus).