Rosneft adds new reserves to big Siberian oilfield

KRASNOYARSK, Russia, March 5 (Reuters) Russian state oil company Rosneft has added new reserves to its already giant Vankor field in East Siberia, which is set to become one of the main sources of Russian crude supplies to China.

''We have added some 100 million tonnes (733 million barrels) of new reserves on the Vankor field over the past year,'' the head of Rosneft's Vankor subsidiary, Yevgeny Popov, told a group of foreign journalists at the weekend.

He said Vankor, discovered in 1989, now contained recoverable reserves of 490 million tonnes or 3.6 billion barrels, up from initial estimates of 125 million tonnes in 2003.

Rosneft started working on Vankor in August 2003 and has invested a total of .5 billion since then, Popov said.

''Our budget for this year alone is another .5 billion,'' he said, adding that all the work was being financed solely by Rosneft.

''We do not propose to invite any partners to this project,'' he said. ''We hope to substantially grow our reserves -- in this case, our investment will grow further, and the life of the project will extend as well.'' Vankor, lying in permafrost in the tundra where winter temperatures plunge to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit), is set to produce its first oil in August 2008, Popov said. The life of the project would be 30 years.

The field's annual output is expected to peak at up to 54 million tonnes in 2018, Popov said.

BOON FOR REGION Vankor and its oil reserves are not only a boon for Rosneft.

They are expected to diversify the economy of the entire Krasnoyarsk Region, Russia's second-largest federal territory by size.

The region, stretching 3,500 km (2,200 miles) from north to south and roughly four times the size of France, has just 3 million people, with non-ferrous metals accounting for some 70 percent of its economy.

''We believe that, starting in 2010, the oil and gas sector will become the region's No. 2 industry after non-ferrous metals,'' Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Khloponin said.

Vankor's crude will go east, via a new pipeline being built to China and the Pacific.

Popov said that, in its earliest stage, Vankor would supply 12 million tonnes of crude a year to China. This volume is set to rise eventually to as much as 30 million tonnes.

''We plan to utilise 100 percent of the associated gas from the field,'' Popov said. ''The gas will be used to generate electricity and will also be reinjected into oil wells to keep their pressure -- and therefore, output -- at a high level.'' Popov said Vankor's oil was of good quality, with low sulphur content.

''When Vankor's oil starts flowing eastwards, it will cost more than Urals,'' he said, referring to the benchmark Russian export oil blend.

''If one day (world) oil prices plunge to per barrel, the Vankor project will not be affected in any way,'' he said.

REUTERS DKS KP2030