Rosneft is the leader of the Russian oil industry and the world's largest listed oil company. Rosneft's business includes oil and gas exploration and production, offshore drilling projects, oil and gas refining and crude oil, domestic and foreign natural gas and product marketing.
The major shareholders of Rosneft are the Russian government (50.00000001% through JSCROSNEFTEGAZ), BP (BP) (19.75%), cefc China (14.16%).
Russian Oil Company, referred to as "Russian Oil", was founded in 1995, just established, it encountered a long period of market bottlenecks, the financial crisis in 1998, making its situation even more sharp, the total assets were once less than 500 million US dollars. Later, after the new management took office, the management and control of the company were gradually restored, and various production and operation indicators achieved substantial growth.
In 2012, Rosneft reached an agreement with BP and russian private consortium AAR to buy two 50% stakes in Tyumen-BP, Russia's third-largest oil company. The total acquisition amounted to approximately $55 billion. After the acquisition, Rosneft surpassed ExxonMobil in the United States in oil and gas production to become the world's largest listed oil company.
In the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list, Rosneft ranked 195th.
The current president of Rosneft is Igor Ivanovich Sechin, a core member of Putin's team who has long followed and trusted Putin.
After returning to the Soviet Union from Africa in 1986, He first worked for the Technology Export Association under the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR, and soon after, he transferred to the Foreign Affairs Office of Leningrad University, and it was at this time that he became acquainted with Putin, who was then assistant to the Vice-Chancellor of Foreign Affairs of Leningrad University. Mr. Shechin has a strong background in the intelligence services, and like Mr. Putin, both have served as KGB officers.
In 1991, Putin was appointed deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, and Shechin was promoted by Putin to the position of head of his office, assistant and other positions. Since then, Shechin has followed Putin to the Presidential Affairs Administration as deputy director. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin handed over Russian authority to Putin. When Putin formed the general office on the same day, Shechin was appointed deputy director of the general office. After Putin officially entered the Kremlin on May 7, 2000, Shechin's position was securely retained. In 2004, in addition to deputy director of the General Office, Szechin also served as assistant to the President of Russia, chairman of Rosneft, and from 2008 to 2012, he also served as deputy prime minister of the Government of the Russian Federation. Despite the constant rotation of positions, Shechin served only one person – Putin.
Shechin helped Putin rehabilitate Khodorkovsky and successfully seized the core assets of Yukos Oil Company.
On March 6, 2020, Putin also followed Shechin's advice, and the Russian representative rejected Saudi Arabia's proposal to cut production in the OPEC+ mechanism, thus leading to an oil price war, in this regard, Xie Chin was also extremely tough, and also said to Putin that the Russian oil industry is not afraid of price wars, and completely started a price war.
After Putin began his third presidential term, Shechin was appointed president of Rosneft. In the same year, Sechin was appointed Secretary-General of the Committee on Energy Development Strategy and Ecological Security under the Russian President, thus becoming the de facto "head" of the Russian energy industry. To be precise, Shechin is more like a person arranged by the Russian government in the Russian business community.
Shechin has enormous power in his hands, and is second only to Putin, the real power figure behind the scenes and the leader of the Russian powerful group. At the same time, he is also Putin's most trusted "close minister". It plays the role of the "number two" in Russia, so it is also known as the "Grey Bishop" of the Kremlin. Swiss economist Andres Srent, a former adviser to the Russian and Ukrainian governments, believes that Shechin is machiavelli of the Kremlin, Putin's right-hand man and think tank.