Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia
The Russian oil industry—which vies with Saudi
Arabia as the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil, providing nearly 12 percent
of the global supply—is facing mounting problems that could send shock waves through the
Russian economy and worldwide. Wheel of Fortune
provides an authoritative account of this vital industry from the last years of communism
to its uncertain future. Tracking the interdependence among Russia’s oil industry,
politics, and economy, Thane Gustafson shows how the stakes extend beyond international
energy security to include the potential threat of a destabilized Russia.
Gustafson, a leading consultant and analyst of the
politics of energy in the former Soviet Union, draws on interviews with key players over
the course of two decades to provide a detailed history of the oil industry’s evolution
since the breakup of the Soviet Union. At its center is the complex and fraught
relationship between the oil industry and the state, which loosened its grip under Yeltsin
only to tighten it again under Putin. As oil becomes harder to find and more expensive to
produce and deliver, Gustafson warns, Russia’s growing dependence on revenue from oil
exports, along with its inefficient and often-corrupt management of the industry, is
unsustainable.
A rich but troubled Soviet legacy, the conflicting
ambitions of politicians and industry oligarchs, and the excesses of capitalism
Russian-style threaten to lead Russia to an impasse. Involving the oil industry in the
country’s modernization agenda and remaking its relationship to the state, Gustafson
argues, is Russia’s best path toward a stable economy and a safer world.
Introduction 1
1 The Breakup: The Soviet Oil Industry
Disintegrates 30
2 Riding Chaos: The Battle for Ownership, Money,
and Power 63
3 The Birth of the Russian Majors: LUKoil,
Surgutneftegaz, and Yukos 98
4 Worlds in Collision: The Foreigners Arrive in
Russia 145
5 The Russian "Oil Miracle": 1999-2004
185
6 The Brothers from Saint Petersburg: The Origins
of Putin's State Capitalism 231
7 "Chudo" Meets "Russian Bear":
The Yukos Affair 272
8 Russia's Accidental Oil Champion: The Rise of
Rosneft 319
9 Krizis: The Rude Awakening of 2008-2009 and the
Russian Oil-Tax Dilemma 359
10 Strong Thumbs, Weak Fingers: How the State
Regulates the Oil Industry 382
11 The Half-Raised Curtain: The Foreign Companies
as Agents of Change 411
12 Three Colors of Oil: The Coming Crisis of Oil
Rents 449
13 Looking Ahead: Oil and the Future of Russia;
Russia and the Future of Oil 480
Notes 503
Bibliography 615
Acknowledgments 637
672 pages, Hardcover