This ministry was created in May 2008 as part of a reorganization by the incoming government of President Dmitry Medvedev.

The former Ministry of Industry and Energy was turned into the Ministry of Industry, whose present Minister is Viktor Khristenko, gaining responsibility for trade policy from the former Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, but losing responsibility for energy policy, which was split off into the new Ministry of Energy.

The present Ministry still uses the Soviet-era "Minenergo" anacronym.

[2][3] In May 2024, the Ministry made production statistics a state secret as a result of the Ukrainian destruction by drone of refineries which tactic was a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, known to Russians as the Special Military Operation.

Weekly fuel data from Rosstat were impaired by this decision.