Natural gas and oil are minerals. Natural gas is widely used as a fuel in the residential, private and multi-family homes for heating, water heating and cooking, and as fuel for cars, boilers, TPP. It is also used in the chemical industry as a feedstock for the production of various organic substances such as plastics.
The second most important sub-sector for the internal energy is the oil industry. Rock-tar is almost never used. It is processed for getting technically valuable products out of it, such as motor fuels, solvents, raw materials for the chemical industry. With the rapid development of the world's petroleum and petrochemical industries it is increased the demand for oil as a source of valuable raw materials for the production of fibers and synthetic rubbers, plastics, surfactants, detergents, softeners, additives, dyes.
For Russia oil and gas industry is one of the most strategically important industries. Oil and gas companies give more than a quarter of industrial output in Russia, more than a third of all tax payments, more than half of the country's export earnings. Competent construction and design services in the oil & gas field have been the trademark of Russia for over a century. During this time, Russian institutes and contractors have been involved in many outstanding international oil and gas projects, and now are recognized for their high standards and outstanding professional expertise.
The largest of the declared foreign projects for the extraction of hydrocarbons in 2009 is the participation in the exploitation in Venezuela called “Blankia Este and Tortuga” (together with “Petroleos de Venezuela”, the Italian “Eni”, Malaysian “Petronas” and Portuguese “EDP”). Other international projects of the Russian petroleum industry are: the block number 26 in the Bay of Bengal (India), the field "El Assel" (Algeria), the project "Rafael Urdaneta" and the exploitation "Junin-6" with “PDVSA” (Venezuela), Cuba - 30% share in the project of four units on the shelf.
Priorities: keeping the current level of hydrocarbon production , improving operational efficiency of the sector, the development of oil refining and petrochemical technology and the increase in exports of processed products with high added value.