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Oil tsars save Putin's top investor show

Moscow - Some of the world's most powerful oil executives will attend Russia's top investment show this week, once again helping the organisers shrug off a meagre turnout from other leading Western industrialists and bankers.

Many CEOs and chairs from major US and European firms withdrew from last year's St Petersburg International Economic Forum because of tensions tied to Russia's annexation of Crimea and a separatist war in eastern Ukraine.

The political environment has calmed and a shaky ceasefire holds in Ukraine, but Western sanctions remain in place and most Western business chiefs have again decided to skip what used to be a key event in the international corporate calendar.

However, for the second year running, oil executives are showing up regardless, with the heads of BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total flying into the home town of President Vladimir Putin.

BP's review of world energy supplies, published this month, estimated that Russian oil and gas reserves had jumped above 100 billion barrels for the first time, climbing to about 103 billion from 93 billion in the last review in 2013. This put it sixth in the global reserves league table.

Steep deterioration

Such an abundance makes it economically vital for major energy firms to maintain healthy ties with Moscow.

"Uncertainty is the rule of the game in this industry," the head of France's Total Patrick Pouyanne said this month.

"We are in the long-term business. This is why at Total we are keen to maintain our commitment to Russia."

Pouyanne and BP's boss Bob Dudley will be speaking at a panel with Putin's energy tsar, the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin. Shell's CEO Ben van Beurden will share the stage on Thursday with the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller.

All of them will likely have a separate meeting with Putin and will generally be much more visible than last year when they preferred to stay on the sidelines, fresh from the shock of a steep deterioration in relations between Russia and the West.



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