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PHOTO COURTESY: Rosneft
Russia has officially commissioned the Vostok Oil project in the Arctic, with the first crude oil flowing through a newly built pipeline to the Bukhta Sever terminal for loading onto an Arctic tanker. Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in the commissioning ceremony by video link and authorized the start of the first shipment. According to Rosneft, the first cargo was loaded aboard the Arc7 ice-class tanker Valentin Pikul.
The project is located in northern Krasnoyarsk Territory and has an estimated resource base of about seven billion tonnes of oil, according to Rosneft. Oil is transported to the Arctic coast through the 790-kilometer Vankor–Payakha–Bukhta Sever pipeline, which has a design capacity of up to 100 million tonnes per year. The pipeline includes a six-kilometer section constructed beneath the Yenisei River.
Bukhta Sever has been developed to support year-round oil shipments under Arctic conditions. The port complex currently includes an oil-loading berth, two cargo berths, a berth for port vessels, and 14 storage tanks capable of holding 30,000 tonnes each. A protective dam was also constructed to protect port operations from heavy ice conditions, while the berth can accommodate Arctic tankers with a deadweight of around 120,000 tonnes.
Rosneft said Vostok Oil is expected to ship around 30 million tonnes of oil beginning in the second half of 2027, with volumes potentially reaching 50 million tonnes by 2030. Further development could raise annual shipments to as much as 100 million tonnes, depending on market demand and economic conditions. The project is expected to increase cargo movements along Russia’s Northern Sea Route as new Arctic shipping, port, and energy infrastructure continues to be developed.
