Russian oil industry would weather U.S. 'bill from hell'

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Stiff new U.S. sanctions against Russia would only have a limited impact on its oil industry because it has drastically reduced its reliance on Western funding and foreign partnerships and is lessening its dependence on imported technology.
Western sanctions imposed in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea have already made it extremely hard for many state oil firms such as Rosneft (ROSN.MM) to borrow abroad or use Western technology to develop shale, offshore and Arctic deposits.While those measures have slowed down a number of challenging oil projects, they have done little to halt the Russian industry’s growth with production near a record high of 11.2 million barrels per day in July - and set to climb further.