Big onshore fields in the world's most prolific hydrocarbon provinces are increasingly the preserve of national oil companies, state-owned behemoths like Saudi Aramco and Russia's OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom.

WSJ: Big Oil Companies Are Shifting Their Focus Back to the West

On a recent morning Alexei Miller, head of Russia's OAO Gazprom, the world's largest public energy company by reserves, strode toward a lectern in a standing-room-only convention hall in Amsterdam.

FORBES: Energy Tsar

With state-controlled giants such as OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom dominating the oil and gas sector, most future foreign investment will be directed at sectors like automobiles and retail-related services, says Peter Westin, chief economist at the Aton brokerage in Moscow.

WSJ: Welcome (Back) to Russia