Sylvain Rossiaud

The obstacles in the way of stabilising the Russian oil model

This article deals with the current change of the institutional and organisational framework of the Russian oil industry. Regarding this evolution, the main characteristic is the increasing involvement of national oil companies in upstream activities. The aim is to explain this reorganisation by relying on the New Institutional Economics framework. These theoretical works highlight that institutional environment and governance structures complement each other. We argue that the current reorganisation is an attempt to increase the coherence of the institutional arrangements governing transactions between the Russian state and private oil companies.

The Emerging Hydrocarbon Interdependence between Russia and China: Institutional and Systemic Implications

Abstract The different agreements on oil and natural gas signed by Russian and Chinese companies testify to the profound changes in the oil and gas policies of both Russia and China. We stress the importance of the contractual norms which structure the energy interdependency of the countries involved. As there is no international multilateral framework able to manage energy supply security, the way the countries involved construct their energy interdependence to an extent defines models of sectoral governance.