Russia’s largest oil company by production is Rosneft.
Rosneft is a state-controlled Russian energy company whose name combines the Russian words for “Russian” and “oil.” It was established as a state enterprise in 1993 and incorporated in 1995, assembling assets that had previously belonged to the Soviet energy system.
The company expanded dramatically after acquiring production assets from Yukos through state-run auctions. Its biggest transformation came in 2013, when Rosneft completed the acquisition of TNK-BP, one of Russia’s major oil companies. That deal made Rosneft a dominant producer in Russia and temporarily the world’s largest publicly traded petroleum company.
Rosneft is sometimes confused with Gazprom because both are major state-controlled energy groups. Gazprom is principally associated with natural gas, while Rosneft’s core identity is oil production. Lukoil and Surgutneftegas are also major Russian producers, but Rosneft is the canonical answer to this production-based question.