Putin Blesses Gazprom Neft's Arctic Liftings

Russia's Gazprom Neft, under the gaze of President Vladimir Putin, has started loading a tanker with crude from its new Novoportovskoye field in the Arctic, which will help Moscow maintain record-high oil production.

The project will help the company to reach its target of 100 million tonnes per year, or 2 million barrels per day, of oil production by 2020.

It will also help Russia to keep its oil production at more than 10 million barrels per day, a post-Soviet record-high, and adding further to the global oil glut which has pressured prices since mid-2014.

Putin watched the launching ceremony via video link from the Kremlin. The oil will be shipped from a terminal called the Arctic Gates with capacity of 8.5 million tonnes per year.

Gazprom Neft has planned to produce 2.5 million tonnes of oil at Novoportovskoye this year, however sources told Reuters that the volumes would be smaller.

The company has put the field's oil reserves at more than 250 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate as well as more than 320 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

The relatively high volumes of the field's light low-sulphur oil could also allow the creation of a new oil grade to feed refineries in northwest Europe.

Alternatively, oil could be shipped to Asia, though this could only be done over short periods because of difficulties navigating through winter ice.

Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya