The Russian oil and gas producer Rosneft has announced the sale of a 5% stake in its Vostok Oil project in the Russian Arctic to a consortium of Vitol and Mercantile & Maritime for €3.5bn (US$4bn). Rosneft already sold a 10% stake in the project to the international trader Trafigura in late 2020.
Vostok Oil project is one of the largest oil projects in Russia, consisting of 52 license areas with 13 oil and gas fields, including Vankorskoye, Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye, Lodochnoye oil fields and new promising oil fields with unique reserves, Payakhskoye and Zapadno-Irkinskoye. The project is estimated to hold over 6 Gt of premium low-sulphur oil and is expected to start production in 2024: it should deliver 30 Mt/year of oil by 2024, and up to 100 Mt/year in 2030. Overall, total investments in the Vostok oil project and related infrastructure (thousands kilometres of pipelines, two aerodromes and a marine terminal) are estimated at RUB10,000bn (US$140bn).