To many in the West, Russia's oil wealth is an addiction that has warped its economy. Russian energy czar Igor Sechin considers that envious nonsense.
Russia's resources "are a God-given good that should be used effectively," he said in his first major interview with a foreign media outlet. "Somebody is always wanting to take them away."
Widely considered the Kremlin's hard-liner-in-chief, Mr. Sechin is one of Russia's most powerful officials. He was a longtime aide and confidant to Vladimir Putin before Mr. Putin became president in 2000.
Last year, Mr. Sechin took over as deputy prime minister, responsible for the vast energy sector, when Mr. Putin became premier. Until recently, Mr. Sechin rarely spoke to the media, giving an aura of malevolent intrigue fueled by rivals, who cast him as the author of the Kremlin's assault on oil giant OAO Yukos, among other things. In recent months, he has raised his public profile.
In a wide-ranging, 90-minute conversation, Mr. Sechin sought to play down differences between hard-liners and liberals in the Kremlin. But his views on energy policy, state ownership and other issues often differ significantly from those of more pro-market and pro-Western colleagues, highlighting tensions within the cabinet.
"One should be objective and judge by effectiveness," he said before leaving on a trip with Mr. Putin to an auto factory in southern Russia. "Let the senior comrades make the assessment. I have my management and it regularly corrects me."
He disagreed with Western economists and some liberal Russian officials, such as First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, who have suggested that Russia would be better off if oil prices don't go too high, arguing the surge in income in recent years has hampered needed efforts to diversify the economy. Mr. Sechin credited the oil boom with allowing Russia to build up the reserves it is now spending to support the economy.
And he was quick to point out that Russia became a major oil exporter in the 1970s in response to demand in the West amid the Arab oil embargo. "Now they tell us, 'You have Dutch disease, you're a resource economy.' But you yourselves asked us to be that way," he said.
Mr. Sechin is Moscow's point man for warming relations with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But he said Russia, the largest oil producer outside the cartel, isn't ready to accept membership in the group, despite its pleas.
"It would be irresponsible for Russia to join OPEC because we can't directly regulate the activity of our companies," he said, as nearly all are privately owned.
Yet, he supports "coordinating actions" with the cartel because of the shared interest in lifting prices. He said Moscow isn't in a position to mandate lower production, but Russian oil companies will curb output this year as falling prices cut into their ability to produce.
He figured that if oil slides back under $40 a barrel, Russian output this year could fall twice the amount the government now forecasts, or about 300,000 barrels a day.
Russia, he added, wants to keep oil prices between $60 and $100 a barrel. To help ensure that, Moscow is considering building a reserve of crude to allow it to react to market shifts. In addition, Mr. Sechin said Russia has put off auctioning development rights for some big, new export-oriented fields.
At current prices, he said oil companies are starved for vital capital to invest in new projects. "If companies don't have access to stable financial resources for the long term, that could lead to a shortage and to a sharp increase in prices for oil and oil products," he said. "That might not alarm consumers very much now because demand is falling, but when the recovery begins...this situation could develop."
Mr. Sechin called for a gradual but major overhaul of the international oil trade, adding tight regulation and longer-term supply contracts, eliminating "economically unjustified intermediaries" and reducing speculation. Russia is the world's No. 2 crude exporter.
Mr. Sechin hailed BP PLC's TNK-BP Ltd. joint venture in Russia as a sign of Russia's openness to foreign investment in the sector. But he singled out secretive Siberian giant OAO Surgutneftegaz as "Russia's best private oil company."
Investors have criticized Surgut for refusing to release international-standard financial accounts or details of its ownership structure.
Speaking about the Russian economy as a whole, Mr. Sechin said the government isn't planning to take over troubled companies. "There is no goal of nationalizing," he said. "I remind you that in the West, this process is under way and it's much harsher. But not here."
Mr. Sechin said the government is supporting companies, but would consider nationalizing only "in exceptional cases, when shareholders ask or [when] it would have influence on systemically important companies."
The government early this year rejected offers from some heavily indebted tycoons to convert loans from state banks into minority equity stakes in their companies.
"Nobody is taking anything from anyone," he said. "They should drink the cup of their responsibility to the end."