FSUOGM: Rosneft looks at wind solution for Vostok Oil

Russian state oil giant Rosneft has teamed up with Chinese companies to look at the potential for powering its giant Vostok Oil project in the Russian Arctic with wind energy.

Rosneft and other Russian oil and gas majors have followed their international counterparts in taking steps to reduce emissions from their activities, as ESG concerns move higher up in the priority lists of investors. Several are looking at ways of cutting their Scope 2 emissions by using renewables to power their production facilities rather than gas or diesel.

Rosneft is looking to make Vostok Oil as clean as possible. Consisting of 13 fields and 52 licences, the megaproject on the Taymyr Peninsula is estimated to hold some 6bn tonnes (44bn barrels) of liquid hydrocarbon reserves and large amounts of natural gas. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin has suggested that the project could one day produce in excess of 2mn barrels per day (bpd) of oil and as much as 50mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG, driving the company’s growth for years to come.

Rosneft said it would study with Chinese partners the design, construction and commissioning of a wind farm at Vostok Oil, which would have an initial capacity of 25-40 MW. The crude found at the Vostok Oil fields also comprises a very low sulphur content of 0.01-0.04%, which not only makes it more commercially valuable but also results in fewer emissions downstream, as less sulphur has to be removed at refineries.

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