Russia's Rosneft appoints new boss of flagship Vostok Oil project

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Rosneft has appointed a new head of its flagship Vostok Oil project that is expected to produce up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030, mostly for export to Asia.

Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, named Andrei Lazeyev, former boss of Rosneft refining unit Bashneft, to lead Vostok Oil, according to the state registry. He will replace Vladimir Chernov as they swap places. Chernov was appointed to lead Bashneft last month.

The change in management is aimed at spurring faster development at the oilfields, the Kommersant newspaper reported last month.

Some analysts, including from BCS brokerage in Moscow, have expressed doubts that the project can meet a goal to start production this year. They have predicted a delay of at least a year, citing the OPEC+ oil supply cuts deal to support prices.

Rosneft did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the management reshuffle and the implementation of the project.

Lazeyev, who worked at Russo-British oil producer TNK-BP, moved to Rosneft as chief geologist in 2013 following its acquisition of TNK-BP. He joined the management board of Rosneft in 2022 and took the top job at Bashneft, the Kommersant reported.

Global commodity traders Trafigura Vitol and Mercantile joined the project in 2020-2021, but left it after Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine in 2022.

Rosneft had held talks with Chinese, Indian and Japanese companies about them joining the project, but the talks have yet to produce an outcome.

If realised, the output expected from Vostok Oil would roughly equate to the entire North Sea oil market of between 1.8 million and 2 million bpd.

It would also be on a par with production realised at the Samotlor West Siberian oilfield in the 1970s and 1980s.

Vostok Oil's loading terminal, the Bukhta Sever, in the Yenisei Bay on the Taymyr Peninsula is expected to handle 600,000 bpd when finished this year, or around 15% of Russia's total and equal to current loadings from Primorsk, Russia's largest Baltic sea port.

Rosneft said in March it started construction of the country's largest oil loading pier at Bukhta Sever, where harsh Arctic weather is one of the many challenges to the project.

The company is also constructing a 770-km long (479 miles) oil pipeline to the terminal. Rosneft said in its financial report, that, as of the end of March, more than 250 kilometres of the pipeline has been welded.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jason Neely and Barbara Lewis)