Despite recession, Russian drillers are the world's best performers

London

AT a time when the collapse in crude prices pushes Russia's economy into a recession, the nation's oil producers are managing to beat their Western counterparts. On measures including cash flow, profit margins and share prices, OAO Rosneft, Lukoil PJSC - Russia's two largest oil producers - and OAO Gazprom Neft are performing better than Royal Dutch Shell plc, BP plc or ExxonMobil Corp.

"When oil goes down, the Western companies are hurt more than the Russian companies," said Maxim Edelson, a senior director at Fitch Ratings in Moscow. Because Russian tax rates adjust automatically to lower prices, the nat…