OREANDA-NEWS. Rosneft has found a way to improve the cost efficiency of its export operations.

At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 6, the oil company's president Sergei Bogdanchikov suggested a supply replacement scheme, using the strategic Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean pipeline, according to an informed source. Rosneft is looking to supply a portion of oil from Vankor to the Primorsk port, so that other companies with supply quotas in that direction could fill the ESPO pipeline in exchange.

Rosneft's Vice President Alexei Kuznetsov assured that the first stage of the ESPO would be launched by 2008, with the state company to fill its capacities to 30 percent by 2009 and 50 percent by 2014, primarily with oil from the Vankor oil field.