style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">In no other big economy do oil and gas play such a vital role as in Russia. They account for two-thirds of its exports, half its budget revenues and nearly one-third of economic output. In a real sense, the history of Russia’s oil industry since the collapse of communism is the history of the country itself.