Russia launches commercial crude oil exports of the "Eastern Oil" project, with initial scale far below target

(1) Russia has begun commercial crude oil exports from the Russian oil giant's "Vostok Oil" project. (2) This project is a large-scale oil development in the Arctic region, which Moscow hopes will reverse years of delays and sanctions, and boost crude oil production. (3) Previously, the US shale oil boom allowed the United States to surpass Russia and become the world's largest crude oil producer; Russia is now seeking new sources of production growth. (4) The project was once touted as having the capacity to produce 2 million barrels of crude oil per day, accounting for about 2% of global oil supply. (5) Currently, the scale of exports from this project remains far below the above target; two industry sources estimate that average exports this year will be about 150,000 barrels per day, with most of the supply coming from Russian oil company's mature Vankor oil field.