The petroleum industry in Russia is one of the largest in the world. Russia has the largest reserves and is the largest exporter of natural gas. It has the second largest coal reserves, the sixth largest oil reserves, and is one of the largest producers of oil. It is the fourth largest energy user.
Russia produced an average of of oil per day in December 2015. In 2009, it produced 12% of the world's oil and had a similar share of global oil exports. In June 2006, Russian crude oil and condensate production reached the post-Soviet maximum of per day. Exceeding production in 2000 by . Russian exports consist of more than of oil and nearly of refined products, which go mainly to the European market. The domestic demand in 2005 was on average. It is also the main transit country for oil from Kazakhstan.
Until 2023 Russia was by far the world's largest natural gas exporter. Most, but not all, authorities believe that Russia has the world's largest proven reserves of natural gas. Sources indicating Russia have the largest proven reserves including the US CIA (47.6 trillion cubic meters), the US Energy Information Administration (47.8 tcm), and OPEC (48.7 tcm). However, BP credits Russia with only 31.3 tcm as of 1st January 2014, which would stand it in second place, slightly behind Iran (33.1 to 33.8 tcm, depending on the source). According to US Geological Survey estimations, Russian has the world's largest proven reserves of natural gas Russia is also likely to have the world's largest volume of still-undiscovered natural gas: a mean probable volume of 6.7 trillion cubic meters. The USGS estimate of Russia's undiscovered oil is 22 billion barrels, second in the world only to those of Iraq.
Investment and sanctions
As of 2008, the Russian oil industry claims to be in need of huge investments. Strong growth in the Russian economy means that local demand for all types of energy sources (oil, gas, nuclear, coal, hydro, electricity) continues to grow.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in sanctions imposed by the USA, the EU and other nations, to forbid or reduce the importation of Gas, Oil and associated products from Russia, including the introduction of a novel price cap on crude shipped oil, designed to allow Russia to maintain production but limiting the revenue from oil sales. From 5 December 2022 the price cap is set at USD60 per barrel. This was followed in 2023 with sanctions and a price cap on Russian oil products, and the EU introduced sanctions on natural gas.
A US Treasury report in May 2023 highlighted that Russian oil exports were continuing to rise, providing stability in the world market, as planned, whilst Russia's revenue was being restrained by the price cap to $5-6 billion per month, compared with $8-15 billion a month in 2022. Russia has changed their tax rules to levy more tax on oil producers to help offset falling revenue, to the detriment of investment. Market participants and geopolitical analysts now acknowledge that the price cap is accomplishing both of its goals. Gas exports, which in 2021 were 185bcm have fallen in 2023 by around 70%.
Russia's oil and gas companies
The biggest Russian oil company is Rosneft followed by Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom Neft and Tatneft. All oil trunk pipelines (except Caspian Pipeline Consortium) are owned and operated by the state-owned monopoly Transneft and oil products pipeline are owned and operated by its subsidiary Transnefteproduct.
Gazprom (Russia's state-run natural gas monopoly; world's biggest gas exploration and production company) Lukoil Rosneft (State-owned Russian oil and gas exploration company) Surgutneftegas Tatneft Northgas Transneft (Russia's pipeline monopoly) Bashneft (Russian oil refining company, one of the largest producer of oil in the country) Russneft Itera Novatek Rusneftegaz
Academic institutions
Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas (Moscow) Saint Petersburg Mining Institute -Oil and Gas Department (Saint Petersburg) Siberian Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (SibNIINP) Russia Petroleum Research Exploration Institute (VNIGRI) of Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN). Tyumen State Oil and Gas University Tyumen) Ufa State Petroleum Technological University Almetyevsk State Petroleum Institute (Almetyevsk) Irkutsk National Research Technical University (Irkutsk)