The article presents an analysis of performance indicators of companies in the oil and gas industry of Russia in 2013-2018. The aim of the study is to decompose the factors of change in the return on equity (ROE) of Russian oil and gas companies. The authors used the Dupont method to identify the main factors affecting ROE. After decomposing the ROE into factors, the authors evaluated their impact using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI-1). As a result of the study, it was found that in most companies the greatest impact on the change in ROE has a return on sales, primarily as a result of revenue growth due to favorable oil prices and positive exchange rate differences. Simultaneously, sales profitability has a positive effect on the index of almost all companies in the industry. Asset turnover also had only a positive effect on ROE. However, a comparison of the results for 2017 and 2018 showed a significant difference in performance for many companies. Thus, we can conclude that the effect of a certain factor on the profitability of sales largely depends on the development strategy of the company for the coming year, the economic and political situation. The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.