Rosneft sets sights on Russia crown

RUSSIA'S state-owned oil company, Rosneft, has demonstrated the scale of its ambitions by saying its plans to usurp Lukoil as the country's biggest oil producer within the next three years. Only last year, Rosneft occupied the modest sixth place in the ranking of Russian oil producers, with output of 21.4m tonnes. However, its acquisition in December of Yukos' 50m tonnes a year (t/y) Yuganskneftegaz production unit more than tripled the company's output overnight. Having jostled Yukos out of the number two slot in the Russian oil hierarchy, Rosneft has set its sights on the top of the tree, declaring it will be the country's number-one producer by 2007 or 2008, a position Lukoil has held for