The tightening of US sanctions, which has driven down Russian oil prices to $40 per barrel and below, has led to a series of bankruptcies of small oil companies in key Russian producing regions.
This is reported by The Moscow Times with reference to the Russian publication Kommersant.
Thus, the Russian state bank VTB plans to file for bankruptcy of the First Oil oil group, owned by former SIBUR shareholder Yakov Goldovsky.
Goldovsky’s company operates in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
Russia’s main oil-producing province has accumulated about 6 billion rubles in debt that it cannot pay. It owns several small deposits with total reserves of 14 million tons and production is 500,000 tons per year.
First Oil’s condition worsened during the pandemic. And new American sanctions, which forced oil companies to sell raw materials at discounts of up to $30 per barrel, finished off Goldovsky’s business. Debt to creditors increased and difficulties arose with its servicing.
At the end of 2025, NC Yangpur, which represents the interests of Belarusneft in Russia and is developing two areas in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, entered bankruptcy proceedings.
A little earlier, the Astrakhan Oil Company and the Gorny Oil Company, which owned 3 licenses in the south of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, went bankrupt following claims by the tax service. In January, the Moscow Credit Bank demanded about 7 billion rubles from the owners of the bankrupt company.
The condition of Russian oil companies is deteriorating: export revenue is declining, especially in projects with high costs, says Freedom Finance analyst Vladimir Chernov.
According to Rosstat, half of the companies that produce oil and gas in the country are now unprofitable: in January-November 2025, they worked in the red by 575 billion rubles. The same companies that remain profitable have reduced their size by more than half, to 3 trillion rubles in 11 months.
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