Evaluating the Downstream Development Strategy of Oil Companies: The Case of Rosneft

Abstract

The relevance of this study is due to the low rate of development of the downstream sectors of Russian oil companies. Against a background of the sale of significant volumes of oil and gas raw materials, Russia lags behind world leaders in the production and consumption of petrochemical and chemical products, with their share in the gross domestic product of the country being only 1.1%. Connected to this is the issue of substantiating strategies of development for the downstream sectors of Russian oil companies, which requires detailed research. In this light, it is necessary to take into account current trends in the worldwide demand on petroleum products and also the opportunities and competitive advantages of Russian oil and gas companies in the creation and development of refineries with a consideration of modern technological, environmental, social and market criteria. The paper tests hypotheses about modernisation as a process of increasing efficiency in the development of the industry as a whole. The results of the study show that the planned pace of development in the industry by means of modernisation proves to be insufficient and requires additional investments in innovative development and new construction. The value of the research lies in the modelling of modernisation strategy options by the example of a large oil company, the estimation of results by the criteria of world average indices of technological efficiency of production and the analysis of these results by state indicators of branch development. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using this research approach as an analogue.

Keywords

• downstream sector
• oil companies
• strategic projects
• competitiveness
• petrochemicals
• range