Russia has begun commercial exports of oil from the "Vostok Oil" mega-project on Taimyr, with the first quantities loaded onto ice-class tankers and headed to Asia via the Northern Sea Route.
The project is owned by "Rosneft", and the first oil was taken on board at the "Bukhta Sever" terminal. According to data cited by "Ukrainska Pravda" and The Moscow Times, initial exports are 150,000 barrels per day, and by 2030 the target is 1 million barrels per day.
The "Vostok Oil" cluster unites more than 13 fields on Taimyr and in Eastern Siberia with about 51 billion barrels of reserves and a total production potential of 2 million barrels per day. The project is presented as Russia's largest oil project since the collapse of the USSR.
For its implementation, Igor Sechin has won tax breaks worth 2.6 trillion rubles. On September 5, Vladimir Putin officially announced the launch of the project, and “Rosneft“ announced that the first delivery had been loaded onto the tanker “Valentin Pikul“.
“There are no other deposits with a similar resource base in Russia“, says the text quoted by “Ukrainska Pravda“.
According to the data, the project is located over 3,000 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, which reduces the risk for exports via the Arctic route.
Sources: Ukrainska Pravda, The Moscow Times, Rosneft