BP's $9 billion merger with TNK-Sidanco, Russia's
fourth-largest oil company, is the largest one-off investment
in Russia ever. With oil reserves falling and the Middle East
volatile, other super-majors are considering deals with the
remaining Russian oil companies. But the Russians may not
want to do deals and president Putin may not let
them.
Last December, in oil industry journal World Energy, a
vice-president of Exxon Mobil admitted that oil discoveries since
the 1960s had fallen dramatically, while demand was still rising
steeply. In other words, oil reserves were declining. As Jim Meyer,
director at the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (Odac) says: "This
was perhaps the first time the super-majors had publicly
acknowledged that reserves were falling."
The decline in big new oil discoveries means the super-majors
need to buy companies that have reserves. As Meyer says: "Russia is
a great market because it has substantial reserves left in it."
