Russian stocks rose on the first trading day of the year, led by Gazprom “as investors bet that the leading candidate in the country’s presidential race will support the natural-gas industry if he takes office.” Shell’s chief officer has commented on the company’s sale of its stake in the Sakhalin-2 project to Gazprom. “What we have learned from this is that you can only work with large Russian partners in Russia.” “BP and Shell have been surpassed by Gazprom and PetroChina.” Oil supermajors now represent just 23% of the global sector’s total market capitalisation.