Are We Going Toward a Coherence of the Institutional Arrangements in the Russian Oil Industry?

This article is concerned with the current reorganization of the Russian oil industry, i.e. the increasing involvement of state-controlled companies in upstream oil activities. Conversely to the widespread idea that this reorganization is a mere re-nationalization of oil assets explained by short-run political interests, this article aims at supporting the thesis that this reorganization is a coherent oil policy regarding the privatization process's contradictions. These contradictions are brought to light by relying on the New Institutional Economics framework and especially works concerned with the institutional complementarity. It is stressed that the Russian oil model is currently incoherent and does not allow the effectiveness of institutions, private property rights on oil assets and oil contracts. Furthermore, the imposition of a state-controlled oil company beside privates ones could be an organizational arrangement likely to put an end to this incoherence. Then, it could allow the effectiveness of economic institutions. In this perspective, the current reorganization appears as a necessary stage for the Russian state to continue delegating oil upstream activities to private operators. The recent agreement signed by Gazprom and Total for exploring and developing the Shtockman field may be regard as a confirmation of this last assessment.