Top 10 Russian Companies by Sales

Bruce Vanderveen submits:Quick, which country produces more oil than any other? If you know that, can you name its largest oil and gas companies? Odds are (unless you're an oil and gas enthusiast) you don't know.

Kurt Wulff (McDep Associates) submits: Contrarian Buy-recommendations Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) and Lukoil (LUKOY) offer a repeat of the high rate of appreciation demonstrated in the 2000s along with the volatility demonstrated during the global financial panic of 2008.

With TNK-BP, Rosneft overtakes Exxon and PetroChina Co. in output. It will pump about 4.1 million barrels a day this year OAO Rosneft’s US$55-billion takeover of TNK-BP creates an empire stretching from Russia’s Far East to Venezuela that pumps almost 5% of the world’s crude.

Craig Pirrong submits: One of the biggest news items of the last couple of days is the announcement of the BP (BP)-Rosneft (RNGZY.PK) agreement. Under the agreement, the firms exchange stakes, and will undertake a joint venture (theoretically) to produce oil in Russia’s Arctic.

MMC Norilsk Nickel ADR (NILSY.PK) Q4 2012 Results Earnings Call April 15, 2013 10:00 AM ET Executives Alexey Ivanov - Director, Investor Relations Evgeny Yakovlev - First Deputy CEO Sergey Malyshev - Chief Financial Officer Carl Kohoff - Chief, Economic Department Analysts Sergey Donskoy - Societe Generale Nikolay Sosnovskiy - VTB Capital Andrey Lobazov - Alfa Bank

TNK-BP, the Russian joint venture of the British energy giant that is at the heart of a heated merger dispute, is worth $54.1 billion, Moscow's Finans magazine reported on Monday.The valuation appeared in the weekly's annual ranking of the country's biggest companies, with the list headed by natural gas giant Gazprom on $205.4 billion and state-held oil firm Rosneft -- BP's erstwhile partner, on $99.4 billion.TNK-BP came in sixth, also trailing the RZhD Russian Railways company, state bank Sberbank and private oil firm Lukoil.

Emerging Money submits:By Tim Seymour Gazprom (OGZPY.PK), the giant state-run gas producer, has gotten marching orders from no less than Putin himself to open its pipelines to independent rivals ... or else.

Dennis U. Atuanya submits: In an earlier article, International Oil Companies: The Challenges Ahead, l discussed three broad challenges that International Oil Companies, IOCs, were and still are grappling with. Over the last decade for example, major IOCs have had increasing difficulty to profitable reserves addition. More worrisome for them is the rise of National Oil Companies, NOCs.