This strategy has brought in extra money and preserved jobs, helping the country weather an economic contraction of around 4 percent this year. But it also undermined the future development of Russia's oil industry.
To maintain production volumes, oil companies are tapping easy-to-reach resources and neglecting investment in deposits that are harder to access, said Mikhail Krutikhin, a partner at consultants RusEnergy.
In the longer run, Russian oil output — which currently rivals Saudi Arabia at more than 10 million barrels per day — will decline sharply.