Russia's Surgutneftgas defies sanctions and scrutiny

Thanks to its domestic focus, Surgutneftegas, Russia's fourth-largest oil company, is well positioned to weather Western sanctions. But other problems may lie ahead for this most secretive of companies

Surgutneftegas is certainly a conservatively run oil company. The  producer, based in Surgut, grew alongside the oil discoveries made near the West Siberian town in the 1960s, and is largely self sufficient. It has not borrowed from Western banks, has no operations abroad, has no foreign partners and does not rely on Western technology for its output - 13% of the country's crude production and 25% of Russia's gas."Surgutneftegas... [is] the least likely to suffer from the [latest] restrictions [targeting Arctic, deep-water and shale developments] as [it] relies mostly on in-house oilfield services," notes Alexei Kokin, an analyst with Moscow-based investment bank Uralsib. Indeed, the Russi