Well, mistakes were made in Yeltsin times and too bad that oil enterprises were stolen from Russians. Transfers of oil properties to Western companies were never seen as legitimate. Let’s hope that once Putin is gone they will be nationalized back.

Still, the majority of extraction and reserves are owned by domestic concerns.

Anybody who thinks the Russian oil and gas projects represent a domestic effort only hasn’t been paying attention to who is actually doing the work.

Did anyone say only? For work, it’s mostly domestic with a bit of Halliburton and Central Asian migrants in a mix. Domestic only period lasted 70 years and ended 20 years ago.

I have heard several reasons why Russians don’t want the western oil companies involved in Russia’s oil and gas development plans; that they are corrupt, at least by Russian stanards, is a new one to me

Not so Western, but primarily Naglo-Saxon companies which are known for corruption, mismanagement and blatant disregard for the law and environment. A pity that BP is not kicked out of Russia. Others, say, French, Norwegians or Chinese, have better reputations.

I like this. Russia’s internet champions have switched from “We’re gonna embark on massive oil and gas developments plans and the whole world will depend on us to function” to “Developing our oil and gas reserves is not in our interests …

Setup when gas and oil are extracted for export and proceeds are buried in Treasuries is definitely not in Russian interests. Close 2/3 of the oil wells, send expats and Exxons home and leave Treasuries for China. Sounds sensible to me, not going to happen with Putin in power, though.

The facts are there, all right. Shell, BP, Exxon, Total, StatOil, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, SODECO and ONGC are all major operators in Russia. Oilfield services and drilling is usually provided by KCA Deutag, Schlumberger, Parker Drilling, BJ Services, Champion Technologies, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and many many others. Engineering and construction companies working in Russia include Fluor, WorleyParsons, CTSD, Bechtel, Enka, ABB Luminus, PSN, Amec, Samsung, Daewoo, Aker, CH2MHill, Veco, and a whole heap of others, without going into the subcontractors such as Kentz, Kentech, and Cape who provide specialist services. Anybody who thinks the Russian oil and gas projects represent a domestic effort only hasn’t been paying attention to who is actually doing the work.

Not only “think”, but perfectly managed to do that for the last 90 years and became the largest oil and gas producer in the world.

Perfectly managed? Hmm. I wouldn’t call reinjecting water into the reservoirs to the point that they become unviable well before their time is an example of perfect management. Now would I call the appalling pollution which is evident around any Russian-run wellsite, nor the atrocious HSE statistics, or the overall declining production rates the result of perfect management.

You mean it is a matter of buying “technology” and allowing corrupt western oil majors in? Thanks, but no.

I have heard several reasons why Russians don’t want the western oil companies involved in Russia’s oil and gas development plans; that they are corrupt, at least by Russian stanards, is a new one to me, it’s rareity probably having something to do with the high degree to which it is laughable.

Moreover, Russia currently extracts 5 m bbl/day it does not use and bury into useless US treasuries, so looks like some production cuts are in order.

I like this. Russia’s internet champions have switched from “We’re gonna embark on massive oil and gas developments plans and the whole world will depend on us to function” to “Developing our oil and gas reserves is not in our interests in the space of the one year it has taken them to realise that their development plans were not realistic! It’s a valiant effort, but I suspect convinces few outside of Russia.

Assertion not supported by the facts. No, in Russia, the largest oil and gas producer in the world, oil and gas business is not international.

The reason why Russia is making a hash of their industry is because they think they can develop all by themselves.

Not only “think”, but perfectly managed to do that for the last 90 years and became the largest oil and gas producer in the world.

They can’t, and they’re slowly realising this. It is not simply a matter of buying technology.

You mean it is a matter of buying “technology” and allowing corrupt western oil majors in? Thanks, but no.

Moreover, Russia currently extracts 5 m bbl/day it does not use and bury into useless US treasuries, so looks like some production cuts are in order.

The revenue from the oil goes mostly into RF foreign currency reserves and various “rainy day” funds. Using the revenues for domestic spending is nothing more than a recipe for even higher inflation. In other words, the RF government dosen’t need the money, because all they really do with it is by US Treasuries.

“Secondly, talking of depleting Russia’s existing oil reserves by increasing production now is like worrying about the water in a lake when a camper drinks some of it: Russia’s reserves are so enormous, depleting them won’t be a worry for another century or so.”

Not so. It’s about 25 years at present production rates. Consider the Brits. They went from peak production and exports (at $10/barrel) in 1999 to net imports by 2004. And now they’re paying almost $80/barrel for their imports like the rest of us. Seems to me that pumping so enthusiastically back in the ’80s and ’90s was a pretty dumb thing for the Brits to do.

“Thirdly, Russia increasing its production would not influence the global price of oil, so the price would be at whatever it was at the time, hence not necessarily lower.”

LOL!! So if Russia had fed another, say, million bpd into the oil glut this Spring, it would have had no impact on prices? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.

Point missed as usual.

2. Since Russia accounts for about 12% (+/- 2%) of world oil production, dropping its production by, say, two-thirds (which would still more than cover domestic consumption), will have an extremely big effect on world oil prices. (Not that I favor such a drastic cut).

3. All the more reason for Russia to develop, buy or steal its own oil-extraction technologies instead of depending on foreigners.

The combined Opec efforts and world demand is what generally sets the oil price, Russia increasing its production would have negligible effect..
.
And the oil service providers are okay for running operations, they are not much good for developing new fields. No service provider can design and build an LNG plant, offshore platform, and supporting infrastructure. Which is why Russia is once again courting the majors.

Re-2. Oh dear, you’re one of those cornucopians. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3626

Re-3. Global oil supplies are very constrained from the mid-2000’s, so I’m not so sure about that.

Actually, it is the Russian government who wants to increase production.

And they are idiots or the West’s ideological slaves for that.

Gazprom and Rosneft, on the other hand, are not competent to develop them.

If they really want to develop them and don’t have the domestic Russian capability to (which is true), they can hire Western oil service companies to do that – as they have on many other fields. The supermajors aren’t necessary.