Rosneft holds talks with global oil traders

MOSCOW: Rosnet has held talks with international traders as well as big global oil consumers such as India and China about their possible participation in its massive Vostok Oil project, the Russian energy giant said.

Vostok Oil is one of Russia’s biggest oil projects, comparable in size with the exploration of West Siberia in the 1970s or the US Bakken oil province over the past decade.

Reuters reported last month that Rosnet was courting investments from global trading houses to help develop Vostok Oil ater trading house Trafigura secured a 10% stake in the project.

Rosnet said it sold the stake to Trafigura for 7 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in the project, which is expected to start shipping oil via the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic in 2024.

Didier Casimiro, Rosnet’s first vice president, told a conference call with investors that the company has been in the discussions with international traders and consumers. He did not identify the traders.

Another company manager said that Vostok Oil could become the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas with annual output of around 50 million tonnes at around 2030.

In terms of oil, Rosnet has previously estimated Vostok’s resources at 44 billion barrels, enough to supply the world for more than a year. It has said that, later this decade, it could produce 1% of global oil at a price competitive with Middle Eastern producers.

Earlier on Friday, Rosnet, in which British oil major BP owns a 19.75% stake, reported a 79% fall in 2020 net income to 147 billion roubles,