MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - Not more than five of the largest companies will remain in Russia's oil and gas sector in the foreseeable future, Lukoil's president said Friday.
At present, in addition to LUKoil [RTS: LKOH], Russia's major oil producers include Rosneft [RTS: ROSN], a state-controlled oil company; Gazprom Neft [SIBN], a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP]; Siberia-based Surgutneftegaz [RTS: SNGS], and TNK-BP [RTS: TNBP], a Russian-British oil venture.
Vagit Alekperov said there are two priorities for Russia's oil sector - to meet growing internal demand and boost exports.
He said Russia is planning to increase the volume of oil exports to Europe and the United States and is building new pipeline systems.
But he said Lukoil does not at this stage plan to send oil to the Chinese market, keeping its focus on Europe.
