Rosneft plans to increase spending at its Vankor oil field in eastern Siberia almost fivefold this year to $1.5 billion, Interfax said Thursday, citing the chief engineer of the project, Alexander Nazarenko.
The oil company will boost spending to 38 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) from 8 billion rubles last year at the field, which will help fill a pipeline being built across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean, the agency said.
Of this year's investment, 7 billion rubles will be spent on exploration and drilling and the rest on capital construction, Interfax said.
Nazarenko said Vankor can probably produce as much as 34 million tons of oil in 2014, while the current estimate of peak output is almost 22 million tons a year from 2012 to 2016, Interfax reported.
Interfax also reported Thursday that Rosneft CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov said the company plans to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" to upgrade the Achinsk refinery in eastern Siberia.
The Krasnoyarsk regional administration expects Rosneft to invest $1 billion in the refinery, which can process 6.5 million tons of oil a year, the news service said, citing an administration official it did not identify.
Rosneft also announced that it would raise crude processing at its newly acquired Angarsk refinery in eastern Siberia by 55 percent as it expands trade with China, Itar-Tass reported Wednesday. Bogdanchikov said the plant would process 14 million tons per year in the future compared with 9 million tons last year, the report said.
Refined products from Angarsk also go to China and other Asian countries but via Pacific ports.
Rosneft paid $6.5 billion to buy Angarsk and other Yukos' assets in eastern Siberia, which included the Achinsk refinery.
