Russia Discusses Merging Oil Giants to Form Second-Largest Crude Producer

Nov 9, 2024, 06:48 AM

Russian officials and business executives have held talks about merging the country’s biggest oil companies into a single producer, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The proposed merger would involve state-backed giant Rosneft Oil absorbing fellow state producer Gazprom Neft—a subsidiary of natural-gas exporter Gazprom—and independently-owned Lukoil. If successful, the resulting company would become the world’s second-largest crude producer, trailing only Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, and would pump almost three times the output of Exxon Mobil.