| mai said: Kaz, forcibly? Rosneft and Gazprom are govermentaly owned enterprises from the beginning (basically they're reorganized USSR Ministry of Oil and Gas Industries respectively minus big chunk of privatized assests). Or do you mean Yukos case? |
Not just the Yukos case. Though Yukos is one of the bigger ones. Another example is the Royal Dutch Shell issue.
Oil companies have greatly reduced investments in Russia and other countries like it, preferring to go with countries that are considered "safer" because the worst possibilites are terrorist bombings.
Not to mention areas that have been marked essentially "government only" like all offshore drilling. Which is why Putin is bending over backwords to try and convince companies like Exxon to take a minority stake that could be taken from them at any time... and why such companies have been so heasitant.
Compared to say, if the US opened up it's artic reserves they'd have to fight off companies with a stick.
Even Putin himself has agreed that such polices have harmed oil production!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304444604577341661762038968.html
