Russneft’s refining division includes: Orsknefteorgsintez, the Krasnodar Refinery-Krasnodarekoneft, Neftemaslozavod, and Slavneftekhim. Russneft’s sales network comprises 96 gas stations located in 14 regions of Russia and the CIS. The company has a modern oil-loading terminal in the Bryansk Region with a capacity of up to 7.7 million tons per year. Russneft’s total payroll is over 20,000 employees.
The company is trying both to sustain its positive performance of recent years and to make its operation substantially more efficient by introducing advanced technologies and modern oil and gas equipment and by investing in the development of proprietary production facilities.
Bashneft Open Joint-Stock Company rounds out the list of the 10 largest Russian oil companies. Bashneft’s history began in 1946, when the Bashkir Petrochemical Integrated Works [Bashneftekhimkombinat] was formed to develop the fields of the “Second Baku.” Since 1995, it has been a joint-stock company. In April 2009, Sistema Joint-Stock Financial Corporation [AFK Sistema] completed a deal to acquire controlling stock interests in six Bashkir oil enterprises for $2.5 billion. The company purchased controlling interests in Bashneft, Ufaneftekhim, Novoyl, Ufaorgsintez, the Ufa Refinery, and Bashkirnefteprodukt from Agidel-Invest, Ural-Invest, Inzer-Invest, and Yuryuzan-Invest. Together with its existing holdings, the company then had a 76.52% equity interest in Bashneft, a 65.78% interest in Ufaneftekhim, an 87.23% interest in Novoyl, a 73.02% interest in Ufaorgsintez, a 78.49% interest in the Ufa Refinery, and a 73.33% interest in Bashkirnefteprodukt.
In October 2009, Bashneft formed an oil and gas production operating company, Bashneft-Dobycha. All of Bashneft-Dobycha’s stock is held by Bashneft.
At present, Bashneft-Dobycha operates mainly within the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Orenburg Region, and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District. The company’s total proven reserves are estimated at 375 million tons. It produces crude oil at more than 160 fields, most of which are nearing exhaustion. The quality of the company’s reserves is low; most fields are characterized by high levels of depletion (about 85%), water cuts (up to 90%), and sulfur content (2% or more).
Bashneft-Dobycha includes nine major oil production divisions: Arlanneft, Aksakovneft, Ishimbayneft, Krasnokholmskneft, Oktyabrskneft, Chekmagushneft, Tuymazaneft, Ufaneft, and Yuzharlanneft.
Bashneft delivers most of its crude hydrocarbons (over 60% of oil production) to refineries in Bashkiria, including the Ufa Refinery, Salavatnefteorgsintez, Ufaneftekhim, and Ufaorgsintez.
The leading enterprise in Bashneft’s gas processing division is the Tuymaza Gas Processing Plant. In addition, the company also has two oil and gas machine-building enterprises: Neftekamsk Oilfield Equipment Plant (Neftekamsk) and Oktyabrsky Oilfield Equipment Plant (Oktyabrsky).
Bashneft’s sales network comprises over 300 gas stations and 60 oil tank farms, which are located in 11 regions of Russia and the CIS. Bashneft has a total payroll of over 67,000 employees.
Over the next several years, the company’s will strive to balance development of its production potential and improve the efficiency of its operations using high-performance methods to introduce state-of-the-art technologies to reduce the level of oil production drop-off at depleted fields.
Select Glossary
All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies (VTsIK)—the supreme legislative, directive, and supervisory body of Soviet Russia, operating in the period between the All-Russian Congresses of Soviets. First elected October 25 (November 7), 1917, consisting of 62 Bolsheviks, 20 Left Socialist Revolutionaries, six Social Democrats, and three Ukrainian Nationalists. The first chairman of the VTsIK was Lev Kamenev (Rosenfeld) (1883–1936).
Ail-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage (VChK)—a special service for safeguarding the national security of Soviet Russia. Formed December 7 (20), 1917 by a resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars. Its jurisdiction encompassed curtailing and preventing crimes against Soviet rule, finding and arresting criminals, investigation, court decisions, and even the execution of sentences. Feliks Dzerzhinsky (1877–1926) was the perennial chairman of the VChK.
Artillery Office—Russia’s central military institution of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Artillery Office was in charge of specialists in the manufacture of artillery (gunners, fusiliers, gatekeepers), as well as treasury blacksmiths of Russian cities (except lowland, coastal, and Siberian ones). The Artillery Office managed the manufacture, distribution, and accounting of artillery and munitions (the Artillery Court, Ordnance Court, and Treasury “Powder” Mills reported to it), monitored the status of fortifications in most cities, and observed the condition of abatises. Controlled by the boyars (less often by the okolnichies) and two chief clerks, it was divided into three desks—city, abatis, and monetary. The Artillery Court was incorporated into the Cavalry Office in January 1678, but became independent again in 1682; in 1701, it formed the basis for the creation of a new central military institution, the Artillery Office.
Bosporan Kingdom—an ancient slave-owning state in the northern Black Sea region in the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait), with its capital at Panticapaeum. It was formed about 480 BCE by the merger of Greek cities on the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas, and later expanded along the eastern shore of Maeotis (Maeotian Swamp, Maeotian Lake, modern Sea of Azov) to the mouth of the Tanais (Don) River. After the late 2nd century BCE, it was incorporated into the Pontian Kingdom, later a vassal of Rome. Destroyed by the Huns.
Embassy Office—a central governmental institution of the Muscovite state in the mid-16th to early 18th centuries, created in 1549, charged with conducting relations with foreign states. The Embassy Office was charged with general supervision of the country’s foreign policy and all ongoing diplomacy: the dispatch of Russian embassies abroad, the receiving and release of foreign embassies, the preparation of texts of instructions (nakazy) to Russian ambassadors and correspondence with them, the drafting of agreements, conduct of negotiations, and—beginning in the early 18th century—appointing and monitoring the actions of permanent Russian diplomatic representatives abroad. The Embassy Office managed foreign merchants during their stays in Russia and all arriving foreigners in general, other than soldiers. In addition, it ransomed and exchanged Russian prisoners, managed newly annexed territories, and dealt with the Don Cossacks and landowning service Tatars of central districts. In the early 18th century, as a result of the reforms of Peter the Great, supervision of foreign relations was transferred from the Embassy Office to the Embassy Chancellery. In 1720, the Embassy Office was abolished and replaced by the Foreign Affairs Board.
Fire worshipers—also called Parsis or Gabrs, were followers of the teachings of Zoroaster who lived in antiquity in Persia, on the Absheron Peninsula, and in northwestern India. They spoke Gujarati.
Icon painter—an artist, usually a member of a monastic order, who specializes in the creation, on the basis of Orthodox canons, of icons for churches and monasteries. An icon is a picture on a wooden board depicting saints and episodes from the Bible. Translated from Greek, “icon” means “image, depiction.” In Kievan Rus, icons were called just that— “images.” Their ease of placement in a temple, their brightness, and the strength of their colors made icons painted on wood most suitable for decoration of Russian wooden churches. In medieval Russia, icons were treated with great respect as objects of worship. Icons were in every home, and lamps burned before them. Icons were also placed at road forks, wells, hung on gates, and placed at the entrances to cities. Icon painting in Kievan Rus was considered an activity pleasing to God. A true icon painter had to be a righteous man and an outstanding personality— combining the talent of an artist and a knowledge of scripture. Before beginning work on an icon, the artist fasted, bathed the night before, and donned a clean shirt. As he began work, he offered a prayer to God, asking Him to “bless my work.”