Irkutsk Oil Company

Irkutsk Oil Company LLC (also INK) is one of the largest independent oil and gas producers in Russia. The company was established in 2000. The Group conducts geological study, exploration, and development of 52 subsoil blocks in the Irkutsk Region, the Krasnoyarsk Region, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). INK's largest investment project is a gas chemical cluster, which includes gas production, treatment, transportation and processing facilities, a helium plant, and the Irkutsk Polymer Plant. The Group employs more than 11 thousand people.

The creation of Irkutsk Oil Company (also INK, INK Group) was preceded by many years of research and exploration of Eastern Siberia’s oil and gas resources during Soviet era. Back at that time, Eastern Siberia was a relatively new territory in terms of oil and gas resources. An official date of beginning of oil exploration is considered to be March 18, 1962, when the first oil gusher erupted in the village of Verkhnemarkovo in Ust-Kutsky district (Irkutsk region). This gave rise to more extensive exploration of the region’s hydrocarbon reserves, as a result of which many oil fields of Eastern Siberia were discovered, including Yaraktinskoye and Danilovskoye fields, which later became the main operating fields of INK.