Joint Ventures from the 1990s

Abstract

The history of foreign partnership in the Russian oil and gas industry during the post-Soviet era has been a chequered one, as discussed in Chapter 1. Some theoretical reasons for this outcome, including in particular the implicit bargaining between the local knowledge of domestic partners and the operational and management skills of foreigners, have been discussed in Chapter 2. However, it is now time to look at some practical examples of joint ventures in action, and to hear about the experiences of the key foreign actors who took part in them. This chapter includes three case studies of partnerships that were formed in the 1990s and operated largely in the Yeltsin era, although their activities did also spill over into the Putin era post-2000.