Oil companies hold the key to Russia's economic prosperity

The numbers are eye-catching. Created last month out of the combination of Russian oil companies AO Yukos Oil and OAO Sibneft, YukosSibneft will pump about 2.3 million barrels of oil a day, more than Kuwait and as much as Iraq. The new company will have 19 billion barrels of oil and gas in reserves, 150,000 workers and a market value of about $35bn. Yet the numbers only scratch the surface of the story. YukosSibneft is the first of what is likely to become a handful of Russian companies too big for global equity investors to ignore. It forces consideration of the identity and nature...