MOSCOW (Reuters) – Some of the world’s biggest fortunes were made and lost when the fall of the Soviet Union threw together a motley gang of brash young tycoons, hard-bitten oilmen and KGB veterans to scrabble for riches amidst the rubble of the Soviet oil industry.

“The iron curtain did not go down, Russians like to say, it went up,” says Georgetown professor Thane Gustafson in “Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia”, a drama of chance and personality which ultimately determined the fate of Russia’s oil.

MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) – Some of the world’s biggest
fortunes were made and lost when the fall of the Soviet Union
threw together a motley gang of brash young tycoons, hard-bitten
oilmen and KGB veterans to scrabble for riches amidst the rubble
of the Soviet oil industry.

“The iron curtain did not go down, Russians like to say, it
went up,” says Georgetown professor Thane Gustafson in “Wheel of
Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia”, a drama of
chance and personality which ultimately determined the fate of
Russia’s oil.

TYUMEN, Russia (Reuters) – Forty-five years after its accidental discovery deep under the swamps of West Siberia, the race is now on to develop the world’s largest shale oil resource, Russia’s Bazhenov.

A drilling push begins in earnest this spring, spurred by President Vladimir Putin’s promise to loosen the Kremlin’s grip on proceeds from its natural resources in hopes of sparking a shale revolution aimed as much at remaking Russia’s oil industry as at raising output.

TYUMEN, Russia, April 3 (Reuters) – Forty-five years after
its accidental discovery deep under the swamps of West Siberia,
the race is now on to develop the world’s largest shale oil
resource, Russia’s Bazhenov.

A drilling push begins in earnest this spring, spurred by
President Vladimir Putin’s promise to loosen the Kremlin’s grip
on proceeds from its natural resources in hopes of sparking a
shale revolution aimed as much at remaking Russia’s oil industry
as at raising output.

MOSCOW, March 25 (Reuters) – China has accepted an olive
branch from Russia’s Gazprom after years of tough
talks which had failed to yield a deal on gas supplies, though
the main point of conflict – price – remains.

Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) agreed on
Friday night that 38 billion cubic metres per year of Russian
gas would flow to China starting in 2018 and come only from
Russia’s East Siberian fields, rather than the West Siberian
fields which also supply Europe.

MOSCOW/BEIJING, March 22 (Reuters) – A hardball game on
price may leave Russia empty-handed after 15 years of talks on a
deal to supply China with gas, with Beijing able to shop around
thanks to a wider choice of suppliers.

As China’s new President Xi Jinping meets Russian President
Vladimir Putin, prospects are dim for substantial progress on a
deal between the world’s largest conventional gas producer and
its fastest growing energy consumer.

MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) – Representatives of the Alfa Group, set to earn billion of dollars from the sale of Anglo-Russian oil venture TNK-BP, have sounded out former BP CEOs John Browne and Tony Hayward about investing jointly in international oil projects.

German Khan, one of four Soviet-born businessmen who shared control of TNK-BP with BP for a decade, met Browne and Hayward and other potential deal partners in London last month, sources familiar with the discussions said.

MOSCOW/LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) – Representatives of the
Alfa Group, set to earn billion of dollars from the sale of
Anglo-Russian oil venture TNK-BP, have sounded out former BP
CEOs John Browne and Tony Hayward about investing jointly in
international oil projects.

German Khan, one of four Soviet-born businessmen who shared
control of TNK-BP with BP for a decade, met Browne and
Hayward and other potential deal partners in London last month,
sources familiar with the discussions said.

MOSCOW, March 4 (Reuters) – BP, which lost its first
deal to drill for oil in Russia’s Arctic to ExxonMobil,
tried to negotiate a new deal with Russian state oil company
Rosneft and was again beaten to the punch by its U.S.
rival.

ExxonMobil won access to the Arctic Laptev Sea fields, where
Rosneft’s prospective reserves amount to 36 billion barrels of
oil equivalent, under a deal last month, but
three industry sources said BP had also been in talks with
Rosneft to explore several blocks there.

MOSCOW/TEL AVIV, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Russian energy group
Gazprom said it is in exclusive talks to buy liquefied natural
gas from the Tamar field off Israel’s coast, which could
strengthen its hand in the booming Asian LNG market.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week reiterated his
call for increased efforts in LNG to diversify Russia’s gas
exports, which are focused on the weak European market.