Maiden Cargo From Russia’s Large Arctic Oil Project Lands in China

China received a first shipment of Russia’s newly started oil production from the giant Arctic project Vostok operated by state-owned Rosneft, according to two tanker trackers and traders.

Aframax-sized tanker Vladimir Monomakh, which sailed the Northern Sea Route, offloaded cargo into Yantai port in east China’s Shandong province early this week, according to ship tracking by Vortexa Analytics and LSEG.

Rosneft began commercial exports from the Vostok Oil project last month, having loaded 250,000 tonnes (about 1.8 million barrels) of crude oil from Bukhta Sever terminal on the Taimyr Peninsula in northern Siberia.

The buyer of the new cargo is unknown. Shandong province is China’s hub for independent refiners, among the largest clients of Russian oil exported from the Far East.

The new oil is considered “light sweet” crude, with sulphur content under 0.05 per cent and API gravity of around 40.

Vostok Oil project represents Russia’s primary vehicle for long-term production growth. Spanning 13 fields with an estimated 50 billion barrels of low-sulphur crude, the project connects to Bukhta Sever via a 790-kilometre (491 miles) pipeline and a planned 100-tank storage hub, according to Rosneft.