Sergei Bogdanchikov, president of the state-controlled oil producer, said after a visit to the Vankor deposit, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of the river port city of Igarka, that Rosneft will invest $1.5 billion in the project.
"When the project's development began, its reserves were estimated at 40 million metric tons of oil (some 299 million barrels)," Bogdanchikov said. "Today, its proved reserves have increased tenfold, and natural gas reserves have reached 100 billion cubic meters."
He said "that is a sufficient basis for long-term production" of some 30 million tons of oil (224 million barrels) per year.
Bogdanchikov said he is convinced large-scale oil production will begin at the Vankor deposit in 2008.
He said the Vankor deposit, discovered in 1988, is among the world's 10 largest similar projects.
The presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District, Anatoly Kvashnin, who also visited the deposit, said it "is being developed with world-class standards, using new technologies and in compliance with environmental requirements."
Vankor crude will be pumped to the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, an ambitious multibillion-dollar project to send Russian hydrocarbons to energy-hungry Asia-Pacific region countries. The pipeline is set to come online in 2008.
