Russian petroleum and gas in the world market

Russia is not actively involved in formulating the world energy policy. However, the slightest socio-economic and political instability in Moscow or Tyumen is reflected in the petroleum price in the stock exchanges in New York or in London. 

Up till now, petroleum policy was defined by two cartels - west and east. The first unites the six largest petroleum companies that extracts 40 percent of oil (by volume) from countries that are not OPEC members. The cumulative volume of sales for these companies in 1991 was almost 400 billion dollars. The eastern cartel (OPEC) includes thirteen countries, which makes up 38 percent of world oil production and 61 percent of world petroleum export. The oil production in Russia makes up 10% of world petroleum production. Therefore, it is possible to say with confidence that Russia occupies a strong position in the international petroleum market. For example, OPEC declared before the crisis that the member states of this organization could not fill any shortage of petroleum, should the world market lose Russia. 

It may not be possible for petroleum to be completely replaced by alternative power sources in the foreseeable future. According to forecasts, the world demand will grow at the rate of 1.5 percent per year, and the supply will essentially not increase, unless Iraq gets a new quota to increase the volume of petroleum for export. Before the energy crisis in 1973, the world s oil extraction was practically doubled every ten years during the past 70 years. But now, only four member countries of OPEC (which hold 66% of the world oil reserves) can in- 

Marcel Dekker, Inc. 270 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 

There was recently a very difficult situation in the world petroleum market. The prices for petroleum had fallen to less than 10 dollars per barrel for the first time in a long time. OPEC countries wanted to see an increase of even up to 30 dollars per barrel. With this in mind, it became necessary to reduce the export of petroleum to the world market, even though each country did not want to do so at the expense of its overall export. 

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