That's interesting about Conoco. I've been trying to understand the Yukos situation and how Russia is manipulating the oil market. I found a couple of articles that are annoying:
American Misery; Russian Gain?
Russia consumes about half of its daily oil production, which recently surpassed the 9 million barrels-per-day (bpd) mark, and exports the other half. The United States consumes 20 million bpd, or almost one-third of total world consumption. Global crude-oil production in 2003 averaged 72 million bpd, of which 8.7 million bpd came from Saudi Arabia, 28 million bpd from the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 8.6 million bpd from Russia. The United States has long been the 800-pound gorilla of consumers, but newly developing nations such as India, Brazil and China are set to challenge the gorilla. (snipped)
http://www.therussiajournal.com/index.htm?obj=44457
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YUKOS increases oil exports to China
July 30, 2004 Posted: 15:38 Moscow time (11:38 GMT)
MOSCOW - YUKOS will increase oil exports to China from 6.4m tons to 7m tons in 2004, Gennady Fadeyev, President of Russian Railways, said at a news briefing.
He said this could allow for full-capacity use of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railroad (BAM) in the shortest possible time. YUKOS oil exports to China may be further increased in the future. (snipped)
Source URL: http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=44867
I guess they're not afraid of nationalization.