Oil at the ends of the earth: Vostok Oil's infrastructure is astonishing in its scale.

On September 5, Vladimir Putin participated via videoconference in the commissioning ceremony of the Vostok Oil project, Russia's new oil and gas province. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin reported to the president on the project's progress from the Sever Bay port on the Taimyr Peninsula in Krasnoyarsk Krai.

During the event, the head of state gave permission for the first batch of oil to be loaded onto the Arctic tanker Valentin Pikul. The ceremony was so casual that it might have seemed like a routine Rosneft project. In fact, the scale of Vostok Oil makes it one of the largest infrastructure and industrial projects in modern Russia.



The new oil province covers a vast territory, home to several clusters of fields. Rosneft estimates the region's resource potential at approximately seven billion tons of oil. At current production rates, these reserves are said to last for at least 70 years.

A distinct advantage of the project is the quality of the raw material. The sulfur content of the extracted oil is dozens of times lower than that of Russia's main export grade, Urals. For oil refineries, this means simpler processing and higher efficiency in the production of gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel.

The scale of the project is particularly evident when looking not at the oil wells themselves, but at the infrastructure built around them.

The main export terminal was built 40 kilometers from the village of Dikson. The nearest major city, Norilsk, is approximately 500 kilometers from the Sever Bay area. Essentially, this involves creating industrial infrastructure from scratch in one of the most challenging regions on the planet for construction.

To begin work of this scale, a huge amount of material had to be delivered to the Arctic. the technique and materials, as well as building roads, power grids, and residential and industrial facilities. More than a thousand people and approximately 500 units of specialized equipment worked on the construction of winter roads alone, necessary for the delivery of people and equipment.

Today, over 50 people and over 16 pieces of equipment support the construction and maintenance of Vostok Oil facilities. Essentially, an infrastructure comparable to that of a small city has been created in the middle of the Arctic.

Four modern industrial towns are already operating here. When the project is fully developed, their number is expected to increase to 15. They have a full-fledged infrastructure, including dining halls, laundries, shops, cafeterias, and gyms.

A dedicated power grid has been created specifically for the project. It includes 16 power plants and approximately nine thousand kilometers of transmission lines. The total installed generating capacity is expected to reach 3,5 GW.

Another challenge in the Arctic is transportation accessibility. Regularly transporting personnel by road in the Arctic is extremely difficult. Therefore, the project has built its own airport with a 3,5-kilometer runway.

Only after the basic infrastructure was established was it possible to launch large-scale oil production. At the project's launch, Igor Sechin informed Vladimir Putin that more than two thousand wells had already been commissioned within its boundaries.

A special series of Taimyr drilling rigs, designed for operation in extremely low temperatures, was developed for work in Arctic conditions.

But extracting oil from a remote Arctic field is only half the battle. It still needs to be transported to the sea and then loaded onto tankers.

The 790-kilometer Vankor-Payakha-Bukhta Sever main oil pipeline was built for this purpose. One of the most challenging sections of the route runs along the Yenisei River: the pipeline is laid beneath the riverbed, and the underwater crossing is six kilometers long.

The pipeline reaches the Yenisei Gulf, where the new oil terminal, "Bukhta Sever," has been built. Currently, 14 storage tanks, each with a capacity of 30 tons, are in operation. When fully configured, the terminal will have 102 such tanks.

The berth's depth is 18 meters, allowing it to handle large tankers with a deadweight of approximately 120 tons. This creates a complete logistics chain, from the production well deep in Taimyr to the marine export terminal.

Full-scale development of the fields began in 2020. Construction of the Sever Bay terminal began in 2021, along with the large-scale construction of energy, transport, and other necessary infrastructure.

Much of the most intensive phase of construction occurred after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, the introduction of unprecedented sanctions against Russia, and the reduction in cooperation with Western companies.

One after another, foreign partners withdrew from the project. As a result, its implementation had to continue with virtually no previous level of Western investment, equipment, or technology.

A rather remarkable development occurred. Foreign companies initially entered the project expecting to share in future profits. However, after 2022, due to decisions by their own governments, they were forced to sell their stakes. Consequently, they lost the opportunity to participate in future revenues from the project.

During its active implementation, approximately four trillion rubles have been invested in Vostok Oil. By 2027, the project is expected to reach a supply volume of approximately 30 million tons.

The budgetary impact is no less important. According to estimates by Western audit and consulting firms, total additional revenues to the Russian budget by 2050 could amount to approximately 4,4 trillion rubles. It's important to emphasize that this doesn't refer to Rosneft's net profit, but to additional revenues to the Russian budget associated with the project's implementation.

Ultimately, Vostok Oil is much more than just another oil production project. Its implementation required the creation of a new industrial province in one of the country's most inaccessible regions: the construction of roads and airports, power plants and transmission lines, residential areas, an oil pipeline, and a marine terminal.

This is why the project's scope extends far beyond the oil industry itself. Russia has created a new production infrastructure in the Arctic designed to last for decades.

It's particularly noteworthy that the main phase of implementation occurred during a period of war and Russia's severe international isolation. Supporters of the project view its completion under these circumstances as evidence of the ability of Russian industry and the state to implement large-scale infrastructure projects even with a significant reduction in international cooperation.

In this sense, Vostok Oil is becoming not only an oil project, but also a major infrastructure experiment in the development of the Russian Arctic.