Investments in the Vostok Oil project in the new oil and gas province in Taimyr may reach 10 trillion rubles, Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin told the media.

"A few words about the new oil and gas province: the Payakhskoye field is the core element. Preliminary work has been completed there, with seismic research, exploration drilling and reserves evaluation finished… But we will need to create a ramified infrastructure to deliver oil to the client and to boost our joint project with BP, Yermak Neftegaz. This includes building service bases, roads and intrafield pipelines. From there, it will be necessary for us to build a northward pipeline and a port in Severnaya Bay, so that oil can be shipped via the Northern Sea Route," Sorokin said.

"All of this is on paper so far. The investment will be huge, if all of the forecasts are confirmed. Spending is estimated at 10 trillion rubles, including slightly more than 5 trillion to be spent on drilling and the rest on the infrastructure and field development. Of course, expenses will be smaller if the current forecasts are not confirmed, or if the project takes longer than initially planned. But still, the infrastructure will cost us trillions of rubles. These 10 trillion rubles are the whole of Vostok Oil," the deputy minister added.

Vostok Oil is developing the reserves of the largest fields in the Vankor cluster (Vankorskoye, Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye and Lodochnoye), as well as perspective oilfields located in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, such as the Payakhskaya group (owned by Eduard Khudainatov's Neftegazholding) and the Zapadno-Irkinsky block. This oil can be transported via the Northern Sea Route.