The paper considers the situation in the oil and gas complex in the time of economic disintegration after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to market economy. The paper is concerned with new approaches of the RF government policy to maintain and develop and oil and gas industries in the new economic environment. The authors point out that the two components of the oil and gas complex (oil and gas) in the 1990s followed quite different paths of development. The development of new forms of business ownership in oil and gas industry, establishment of vertically integrated oil and gas companies in the context of the need to modernize the country’s economy are analyzed. The new archival sources served as basis for reviewing the situation not only in the extractive industry, but also the manufacturing industry. The development of Russian oil and gas industry is analyzed in the context of the national innovation system development.