Akademik

   Operating the largest oil pipeline system in the world, the state-owned Transneft is responsible for building, maintaining, and operating more than 50,000 pipelines across Eurasia. Established by presidential decree on 17 November 1992, the company wields a near monopoly over Russia’s pipelines (transporting more than 90 percent of the country’s oil) and has stakes in the national pipeline systems of Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. Minority shareholders in the company include the government of Kazakhstan, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. The company is currently building a major pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean, with an additional spur running to the interior of China, the world’s second-largest importer of oil. A new pipeline to the Baltic Sea is also in the works. In 2009, the Russian government approved a rate hike to help pay for new pipelines. The company operates nearly 400 pump stations and has reservoir capacity to store more than 15 million cubic meters of petroleum. Headquartered in Moscow, Transneft is run by Nikolay Tokarev and recorded revenues of $67.6 billion in 2007.

   See also Rosneft.