The Moscow Times reported that Rosneft opened a major new oil field in the Arctic that will allow the country to revive flagging output and carve a greater share of China’s growing energy market.

The Vankor field will supply Rosneft with 25.5 million tonnes or 510,000 barrels per day of oil when it reaches peak production in 2014. This is equivalent to nearly one quarter of the state firm output last year.

Mr Vladimir Putin Prime Minister of Russia, at a ceremony to open the field, located more than 100 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle said “A new oil and gas province will be established here in the near future.”

Mr Putin said Vankor which was opened after several delays, would feed into pipelines under construction to China and the Baltic Sea. China has agreed to lend USD 15 billion to Rosneft and another USD 10 billion to Transneft in exchange for supplies of 300 million tonnes of oil over two decades, a large part of which will originate from Vankor.

Rosneft said in a statement that oil from Vankor which it acquired in 2003, would also feed a major new petrochemical complex in the Far East. Mr Putin said the field would also supply crude to the BTS-2 pipeline which will bypass Belarus in delivering oil to the Baltic port of Ust-Luga.

(Sourced from The Moscow Times)