Oil industry of Russia
Resume
Russia holds one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Russian oil reserves are estimated at 31.5 billion tons of crude oil and 3.7 billion tons of gas condensate as of 30.06.2025. Significant share of these reserves is hard-to-recover. As of 2024, share of hard-to-recover reserves was estimated at 52%, crude oil production from hard-to-recover reserves amounted to 32%.
Russia is Top 3 oil producing countries in the world, along with Saudi Arabia and USA. In 2024 liquid hydrocarbon production in Russian Federation amounted to 516 million tons.
Russian stated-owned Transneft is the leading oil pipeline company in the world.
USA, Ukraine, UK and EU are actively attacking Russian oil industry, including military and trade attacks.
After 2022, Russian and Russian-related companies formed one of the world's largest tanker fleet. Every fourth tanker of the most popular Aframax class is controlled by Russian-related companies. Related economic sectors are actively developing, including alternative payment channels for hydrocarbon supplies, marine insurance and reinsurance, technical management of vessels.
Russia is one of the world's largest exporters of crude oil and refined products. As of 2025, the largest recipients of Russian oil are China, India, and Türkiye, while the largest recipients of fuel oil are Middle East and China, of diesel fuel - Brazil, of naphtha - Chinese province of Taiwan.
Russian oil refining industry is one of the largest in the world. Primary oil refining in Russia amounted to 267 million tons in 2024.
In recent years, there have been summer motor fuel crises due to some restrictions on availability of motor gasoline and summer spec diesel fuel. From March to November, the industry operates in a micro-management mode. Export of Russian gasoline and, to a lesser extent, diesel fuel is restricted. Belarusian gasoline is supplied to the central and northwestern regions of Russia to meet high seasonal demand.
Map of oil industry
Reserves
Russian oil reserves are estimated at 31.5 billion tons of crude oil and 3.7 billion tons of gas condensate as of 30.06.2025.
Significant share of these reserves is hard-to-recover. As of 2024, share of hard-to-recover reserves was estimated at 52%, crude oil production from hard-to-recover reserves amounted to 32%. It is predicted that in 2030, the share of oil production from hard-to-recover reserves will reach 80%.
Even maintaining current level of oil production in Russia requires active development of modern oil services and oil engineering, as well as active efforts to cost optimization. Economic attractiveness of oil exports will gradually decrease. It means that cheap oil from Russian is ending.
In 2024, recoverable reserves of crude oil and gas condensate of industrial categories (AB1C1) increased by 516 million tons thanks to geological exploration activities. Production amounted to the same 516 million tons. Thus, net reserves did not change.
In 2025, growth in recoverable reserves of crude oil and gas condensate of industrial categories (AB1C1) thanks to geological exploration amounted to 510 million tons. List of discovered major oil fields includes Yerkutayakhskoye oil field (11.6 million tons) and Ust-Biryukskoye gas condensate field. Volume of geological exploration works decreased in 2025: 2D seismic exploration amounted to 4 thousand square kilometers (against 5 thousand square kilometers in 2024), 3D - 16 thousand square kilometers (24 thousand square kilometers in 2024), exploratory drilling - 684 thousand meters (731 thousand meters in 2024), prospect drilling - 253 thousand meters (352 thousand meters in 2024).
Crude Oil and Gas Condensate production
Production volumes
Russia is Top 3 oil producing countries in the world, along with Saudi Arabia and USA.
In 2023 liquid hydrocarbon production in Russia amounted to 539 million tons (1476 ktd), including:
crude oil - 476 million tons(1.3 million tons per day),
gas condensate - 46 million tons (126 ktd),
NGL - 17 million tons (47 ktd).
In 2024 liquid hydrocarbon production in Russian Federation amounted to 516 million tons.
Oil-producing Companies
The largest oil-producing companies:
Rosneft, including Bashneft
Lukoil
Gazprom, including Gazpromneft
Tatneft
Surugtneftegaz
Irkutsk Oil Company
Production centers
Baku fields
Baku is the first oil-producing region in Russia. Branobel (Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnershipc) was founded in 1879 and operated oil fields in Baku, Grozny, and Chelekene. It was the first Russian vertically integrated oil company.
Nobel family's fortune, which is foundation of Nobel Prize, was earned through their involvement in Baku oil fields.
Samotlor
Super-giant Samotlorskoye oil field in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, discovered on 29.05.1965, became foundation of oil production in Russia during late Soviet era. In Khanty language, "Samotlorskoye" means "trap lake" or "dead lake."
Its oil reserves amounted to 7.1 billion tons, which allowed it to become one of Top 10 in the world. Production began on 28.02.1969. Peak production was reached in 1983 - 215 million tons (589 ktd). In 1997, production dropped to 13 million tons (36 ktd). In 2025, production volume was about 19.5 million tons per year (53 ktd), which makes it the fourth-largest production field in Russia. Total production volume is almost 3 billion tons and 400 billion cubic meters of gas by 2025.
The field is developed by Samotlorneftegaz JSC, which is part of Rosneft group.
More than 20 thousand wells have been drilled during its development, and over 6 thousands of them are still operational. Length of the field’s oil pipelines is 1 923 kilometers and length of roads is almost 6 000 kilometers. Cities of Megion and Nizhnevartovsk were built for oil workers working at Samotlor.
Sakhalin-1
Sakhalin-1 is one of the largest oil and gas projects on the Russian shelf. It includes four offshore fields located on shelf of Sakhalin in Sea of Okhotsk.
Sakhalin-1 has one of the deepest oil wells. The deepest of them has a depth of 15 000 meters (the second deepest in the world).
Oil grade produced at the project is Sokol.
After ExxonMobil’s sabotage in 2022 the project renewed its shareholder structure. As of now it owned by Sakhalin-1 LLC. Rosneft is holder of 30% shares . The remaining shares could be claimed by Indian Oil and Gas Corporation (20%) and Japanese SODEXO (30%). ExxonMobil of USA no longer claims a share, but wants to receive “compensation”.
In the summer of 2025, a decree was signed that allowed foreign shareholders to return their shares, provided that certain requirements were met, including support for lifting of “sanctions” and transfer of funds from the project’s liquidation fund to new account at a Russian bank.
In 2025, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods stated that the company would not return to Sakhalin-1 project or other assets in Russia. ExxonMobil's share in Sakhalin-1 and accumulated dividends are held as collateral for future legal cases related to ExxonMobil's sabotage of the project in 2022, the US seizure of the project's liquidation fund funds in foreign banks, and the seizure of assets of Russian government and private funds in USA. As of September 2025, the value of the collateral is estimated at 382 billion rubles.
In December 2025, there were news about resumption of ONGC participation in the project. The company found a way to make the necessary payment to share capital of new Russian operator of the project. Due to Western “sanctions”, Indian companies, including ONGC, were unable to withdraw its earnings in the amount of about 66 billion rubles (3.0 bEAD / 5.7 bCNY / 76 bINR). The frozen dividends will be used to provide a loan to the Indian company, which will be used to make a mandatory contribution to a special fund for the future conservation of the field. As of August 2025, the amount of the obligations was estimated at 48 billion rubles (2.2 bEAD / 4.1 bCNY / 55 bINR). Payment will be made in Russian rubles with the consent of the Russian government. The decision on the payment structure was agreed upon on the eve of Vladimir Putin's visit to Delhi in early December 2025.
The share of the Japanese consortium SODEXO and the accumulated dividends are also held in pledge until the accumulated funds of the project's liquidation fund are transferred to the Russian account and Japan returns the seized Russian state and private funds held in Japanese banks.
Vankor Cluster and Vostok Oil
20 years ago Rosneft started development of Vankor project, large-scale promising fields in Eastern Siberia. To develop Vankor oil and gas condensate field, unique in terms of reserves, a subsidiary company Vankorneft was established. The project is equipped with the most modern and advanced engineering solutions in the field of oil and gas production, treatement and transportation. More than 95% of the equipment and technologies used at Vankor project are of Russian origin. Oil recovery factor at Vankor is one of the highest in Russia. Project's utilization rate of associated petroleum gas is almost 100%. To achieve maximum synergy, the project pioneered cluster development of nearby Suzun, Tagul, and Lodochnoye fields.
Since 2016, Indian companies (ONGG, Oil India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation, and Bharat Petroleum) own 49.9% of Vankorneft.
In 2019, Vankor cluster became part of Rosneft's flagship project, Vostok Oil, the largest investment project in the global oil and gas industry. Vostok Oil project, controlled by Rosneft, is the largest growth point for oil production in Russia in the near future. The project's resource base exceeds 6.5 billion tons of premium light sweet oil. Vostok Oil includes 52 licensed areas in northern part of Krasnoyarsk Krai and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where 13 oil and gas fields are located.
In 2020, Vankor cluster produced 11.3 million tons of oil.
At the end of 2020, Rosneft sold 10% of Vostok Oil project to international trader Trafigura for 630 billion rubles (in equivalent).
09.04.2021 PJSC “Rosneft” transferred its stake in Vankorneft JSC, which the company owns jointly with the Indian consortium, to Vostok Oil.
In 2022, Trafigura sold its 10% stake in the project to an Azerbaijani businessman's oil trading company registered in China.
As of 2025, preparatory work is underway for construction of oil collection and processing facilities, 770-kilometer Vankor-Payyakh-Bukhta Sever oil pipeline, and Bukhta Sever oil terminal.
Scheme of Vostok Oil project
The first stage of the port's construction provides for the possibility of loading up to 30 MTPA of oil. Initially, this target volumes were scheduled for 2024.
By 2030, after the implementation of the second and third stages of construction, the volume of oil production and supply will reach 115 million tons per year (315,000 tons per day).
Gas condensate production
Key gas condensate production centers:
Nadym-Pur-Tazovskiy group of fields (Gazprom)
Astrakhanskaya group of fields (Gazprom)
Urengoy group of fields (Rospan - Rosneft)
Arctic offshore fields (Novy Port - Gazprom Neft)
Yamal group of fields (Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 - Novatek)
Oil and gas condensate grades
Key grades of oil and gas condensate:
Urals (at the exit of the Transneft pipeline system in the European part of Russia)
ESPO blend (at the exit of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline)
CPC blend (Caspian Pipeline Consortium)
Siberian light
Sakhalin blend
Sokol
Varandey blend
Taxes
Mineral extraction tax (MET) is the leading oil and gas tax in Russia.
In 2024, MET of oil production amounted to 10.1 trillion rubles, MET of gas condensate production - 675 billion rubles. In total, this is equivalent to 29.4% of the federal budget revenues.
Since 2023, oil and gas companies have been paying an additional income tax on net profit of oil and gas companies. In 2024, this tax amounted to 2 trillion rubles (5.4% of the federal budget's revenues).
International organizations
Russia is a member of OPEC+ and BRICS.
Since 2020, voluntary oil restrictions jointly implemented with OPEC countries have effectively managed spot supply of oil on international sea-born market and, consequently, overall price level.
Oilfield Service
2022 has significantly changed Russian oilfield services market. Western oilfield services companies have started to wind down their activities in Russia, which has had an impact on the volumes of oilfield services and at the same time given a boost to the development of domestic oilfield services. Traditionally, restrictions on the provision of oilfield services are one of the foundations of US pressure on disloyal oil-producing countries. In addition to Russia, such tactics are applied to Iran and Venezuela.
Another negative development was the departure of Ukrainian shift workers from North fields. Traditionally, Ukrainian oil service workers have made up a significant portion of shift workers in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug since Soviet times.
Pipeline Transportation of Oil
Oil transportation industry is one of the components of Russian oil industry. State-owned Transneft is natural monopoly in this industry. Unlike USA Russia has a centralized system for transporting crude oil and refined products, which improves efficiency of using oil pipelines. Transportation tariffs are usually indexed according to “Inflation minus” principle, which allows for containment of transportation tariffs even in ruble terms. Another advantage of the natural monopoly in oil transportation is creation of a centralized and large order for necessary equipment and IT systems, which has ensured a 95% level of domestic equipment used by this monopoly.
Some of the key projects of Russian Federation era include:
Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline, which supplies oil from Caspian fields of Kazakhstan and Russia to port of Novorossiysk in Black sea.
Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, which supplies Eastern Siberian oil to ports of Primorsky Krai and through Skovorodino-Mokhe branch to China.
Pivot to Asia of Russian economy requires modernization of Russian oil pipeline system. Transneft is actively increasing factual capacity of existing oil pipelines that supply crude oil to Black Sea and Far Eastern oil terminals.
Sea-born Crude Oil Export
Emergence of Russian tanker fleet
The first oil tanker sailed in Russia was Zoroastr. It was built in 1878 by order of Branobel at a Swedish shipyard.
The first domestically built tankers were Skif, Sarmat, and Vandal, which were built at Sormovo shipyard in Nizhny Novgorod region.
Oil transportation during Russian Empire was a sailing of tankers on domestic rivers and lakes.
Soviet times
During USSR era, absolute priority in oil supply area was to meet needs of its own economy. After WWII crude oil began to be exported to Eastern Europe. All exports were carried out through oil pipelines. Maritime transportation of oil was not significant in that time.
Export of Russian oil by Greek shipowners
Greeks are historically one of the main shipowners in the world. It was two Greek businessmen Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos who created the modern maritime oil trade after the end of World War II.
Thanks to geographical and cultural proximity Greek companies actively participated in Russian oil export from the beginning. Initially Russian sea-born crude oil exports headed to Western and Southern Europe.
Greek shipowners has continued to export Russian oil after beginning the special military operation on 24.02.2022, avoiding pressure from USA, UK and EU. Export of Russian oil is currently one of the main pillars of Greek shipowners' wealth. Shipping industry accounts for 12% of Greece GDP.
The largest Greek tanker shipowners in 2025 were:
Angelikoussis Shipping Group, controlled by Maria Angelikoussis (daughter of John Angelikoussis)
Dynacom, controlled by Georgios Prokopiou (manages around 173 tankers)
Capital Ship Management, controlled by Evangelos Marinakis
Thenamaris, controlled by Konstantinos Martinez (manages 89 tankers)
Almi Tankers (operates about 13 tankers)
IMS, controlled by Marios Gialozoglou
Latsko Shipping, controlled by Marianna Latsis
Minerva Marine, controlled by Andreas Martinou
Delta Tankers, controlled by Diamantis Diamantides”
Evaland Shipping, controlled by Nikos Kefalas
Capital Products Partners, controlled by Ioannis Papalekas
Polembros Shipping
Atlas Maritime Transport
Roxana
World Shipping Corporation
Westport Tankers
Share of EU shipowners in Russian oil exports has been declining since Q2 2023. Thus, share of Greek shipowners (leading owners, commercial and technical managers of EU tanker fleet) decreased from 33% of the total volume of Russian crude oil and dirty products sea-born export in May 2023 to 8% in September 2024. However, Greek shipowners continue to participate in export of Russian light products, with their share decreasing from 40% in Q2 2023 to 24% in September 2024, but it is still remaining relatively high. After marker prices drop in Q2 2025, the share of Greek shipowners began to grow again.
In May 2025, the share of Greek shipowners in export of Russian oil was estimated at 25%. The share is decreasing due to pressure from European Commission.
Freedom Fleet
To ensure crude oil exports, Russian and neutral commodity traders, Russian upstream companies formed their own tanker fleet in 2022, which can be called Freedom fleet as it gives sovereignty for Russian to operate in international markets.
Russia thanks to being in centre of Eurasia always relies predominantly on land-based transportation. As of now we observe hyperactive process of building own maritime trade and creation of required infrastructure. Western countries have been going through this path for centuries. China, thanks to gigantism and tough centralization, mastered this path in two decades.
As of Q3 2024, the fleet involved in Russian crude oil and fuel oil export consist of 410 tankers. Of these, the majority are Aframax-class tankers.
Major addition to the tanker fleet exporting crude and dirty products occurred in Q2 2023 (an increase of 25 vessels per month) and in December 2023 (an increase of 7 new vessels). The tanker fleet exporting light and middle distillates (diesel fuel, gasoline, naphtha) was actively replenished in April 2023 (70 tankers) and later in May-July (20 tankers per month).
Since 2024, tankers involved in export of Iranian and Venezuelan oil have also been used to export Russian oil. This trading strategy was utilized even in March 2022, but was not relatively popular - market share was only 4%. In September 2024, market share of this trading strategy reached 35% of the total volume of sea-born crude oil export. Underlying tanker fleet amounted to 155 tankers.
In the summer of 2024, share of Aframax-class tankers involved in the export of Russian crude oil and petroleum products reached 34% of the total number of vessels of this class worldwide. In the medium-range (MR) class, the share of tankers exporting Russian crude oil and petroleum products in the summer of 2024 was 15%.
All of this lead to a deepening division of the international oil fleet into a Western part controlled by Washington, London, and Tokyo, and an Eastern part controlled by Russia, Iran, previosly Venezuela and to some extent China. From a commercial perspective, the Eastern fleet operates within its own balance of supply and demand, but it is still in the process of forming a common set of institutions for all countries, including maritime insurance and reinsurance, technical management, and financial settlement systems. However, the formation of such institutions is actively underway, both from below (based on the daily operational work of companies involved in trade) and from above (mainly based on the BRICS platform). Attack of USA to Venezuela and Iran in 2026 lead to changing of way to export Venezuelan oil and temporarily diminshed Iranian flows. That made a hit on such trading strategy of independent tanker fleet.
USA, UK, EU as well as occasionally some of their satellite countries, have added tankers involved in the export of Russian hydrocarbons to their blacklists. Usually, initial recovery after each package affecting the fleet takes about two months. During this period of time new tankers are purchased and sailed to the trading regions, new agreements with buyers on logistic schemes are reached. Full recovery takes about four to five months. Market participants have already learned how to react to these packages, but each package brings certain losses to all Russian participants in export schemes.
European pirates
EU, UK, Norway use piracy practices of seizures of Russian merchant vessels in neutral waters of adjacent seas.
List of incidents:
28.12.2024 - tanker Eagle S (9329760) was captured in international territorial waters and escorted into Finnish territorial waters. On 03.02.2025, the tanker and the cargo was released. The plans to steal the cargo were eventually revised and canceled.
21.01.2025 - container ship Baltic Summer (8802090), with a crew from Russia and Belarus, was detained off the coast of Portugal. The ship's owners were suspected of smuggling drugs from South America. The container ship was held in the port for three days, with the crew threatened with weapons and prevented from contacting the consul. In the end, the security forces found nothing but bananas and mangoes. They completely disrupted the cargo, and as a parting gesture, they took away the cigarettes and money.
26.01.2025 - bulk carrier Vezhen (9937270) was captured in international territorial waters and escorted to Swedish territorial waters. On 03.02.2025, the vessel was released.
30.01.2025 - Norwegian Coast Guard detained vessel Silver Dania (8808604) with a Russian crew on board. The reason given was that the vessel may have been involved in an incident involving the damage of a fiber-optic cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden. Subsequently, the Swedish authorities refuted their own accusation. On 01.02.2025, the vessel was released.
21.03.2025 - Germany decided to steal tanker Eventin (9308065) with a cargo of fuel oil from Ust-Luga. In January, after a breakdown in neutral waters, it was towed to German port of Sassnitz. It was later added to its “sanctions" list by European Commission, and on this basis, German authorities decided to confiscate it. As of 18.03.2026 the tanker still in the port of Sassnitz.
11.04.2025 - capture of Aframax class tanker Kiwala (9332810) by Estonia.
13.05.2025 - an attempt to seize Aframax class tanker Jaguar (9293002) by Estonia with support of Polish Air Force. The attack was repelled due to courage of vessel crew timely arrival of Su-35 of Russian Aerospace Forces.
27.09.2025 - seizure of tanker Boracay (9332810) by French military and detention of two crew members. On 03.10.2025, the vessel left French territorial waters. French President Macron explicitly stated that the goal was to detain tankers on their way for 1-2 weeks on false charges in order to disrupt the transportation of Russian oil.
In November 2025, there were reports of British Royal Marines Special Forces training on the Estonian island of Saaremaa to capture ships and oil platforms near Russian territories.
In February 2026, Ireland passed a “law” that would allow Irish troops to seize Russian tankers. This is a continuation of EU's strategy to block Russian hydrocarbon exports through Baltic Sea. UK and France have already taken similar actions, making it difficult for vessels to pass through English Channel.
06.03.2026 - Sweden seized cargo vessel Caffa (9143611).
13.03.2026 - Sweden seized tanker Seaowl I (9321172).
20.03.2026 - France has detained tanker Deyna (9299903)
Apparently, these actions are a pilot for European countries and will be expanded to all Russian exports in future. Among “reasons” mentioned are “lack" of insurance recognized by London, age of vessels, and portcalls to Russian ports. Unfortunately, there has been no response from Russian military so far.
Notes:
Detailed data on global oil market is available in Crude Oil and Petroleum Products module of Seala AI Terminal.
Join Seala AI’s Linkedin page to be informed for all new future releases with new dashboards and insights.
Non-mainstream oil and gas news and views are available in Seala AI’s telegram channel.