ABSTRACT
The post-Soviet Russian oil sector was privatized in the mid-1990s, largely through the highly contentious loans-for-shares programme. As a result, the current situation is that the main state-owned producers are Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, as Sibneft was renamed by its new owners. The main privately owned producers are Lukoil, TNK-BP and Surgutneftegaz, thoroughly non-transparent in terms of its beneficial owners but nevertheless private. The global oil industry is only partially a free market, with OPEC attempting to control global prices through changes in the production quotas of its members. Rosneft was on the privatization programme drawn up by Medvedev as president. Putin is not inclined that way, being sceptical of an unchecked state presence in the economy. But the performance differentials would have to be striking, perhaps unrealistically so, to overcome the ideological prejudices and national security fears, as well as the bureaucratic power of the state-owned firms and their managers.
