A well head and a drilling rig in the Yarakta oilfield
Russia’s quest for energy ‘technological sovereignty’, part 1
The country inherited a near self-sufficient oil and gas industry from the USSR, and it is working fast to eliminate shortfalls in its domestic capability, where advanced drilling and subsea technologies remain a vulnerability
Western sanctions imposed in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 cut Russia’s oil and gas industry off from most best-in-class technologies, equipment and services in the world. Yet, in many areas, the sector has proved resilient to this pressure. Production and refining runs have both fallen from pre-war levels, but due to OPEC+ quotas and Ukrainian drone strikes respectively, and not as a result of sanctions. Simply put, the impact of sanctions blocking Russia’s access to Western technology and equipment should not be overstated. This resilience owes a lot to the fact Russia inherited a near self-sufficient oil and gas industry from the Soviet Union, with a
Also in this section
16 April 2025
Israel continues to strike new oil and gas concession agreements and gas exports continue to rise, but an overreliance on Egypt remains the big concern
15 April 2025
Loss of US shipments of key petrochemical feedstock could see Beijing look to Tehran with tariffs set to upend global LPG flows
15 April 2025
Australia’s East Coast Gas projections for a supply shortfall have been pushed further out, but the challenge to meet evolving gas demand and the shifting assumptions around the fundamentals remain just as stark
15 April 2025
Long-delayed prospects for onshore LNG production in Mozambique have improved thanks to US financing approval, but security challenges blight way ahead
