Introduction

Russia’s national oil company (NOC), Gazprom, is a deeply important player in world energy markets. If Gazprom were a country, its combined oil and gas reserves would rank behind only those of Saudi Arabia and Iran. In 2008, Gazprom controlled about 20% of the world’s natural gas reserves, 70% of Russia’s gas reserves, and 94% of Russia’s gas production.

Gazprom is also a major corporate player. Many of Gazprom’s shares are freely traded on the stock market where its market capitalization briefly stood above $300 billion before energy prices plunged in the second half of 2008. Gazprom is one of the fifty largest companies in the world and by any reasonable valuation of its assets the largest company in Russia (Fortune Global 500 Rankings 2009). In 2008, Gazprom alone accounted for more than 10 percent of Russia’s GDP and provided about 40 percent of its earnings to the federal budget (Gazprom 2009a).