Russia Begins Oil Exports From Giant Vostok Arctic Project

The Russia India oil discount to India is not quantified in the available figures; crude market proxy USO gained 3.3% on September 23 as Rosneft began Arctic shipments.

Russia India oil discount to India remains unreported

The ETF data provides a market level, not a direct crude quote. United States Oil Fund, LP closed at $148.83, with a 52 week range of $107.49 to $163.35 and an RSI reading of 55.85. Those figures do not establish the size of any discount on Russian oil sold to India.

Nor does the supplied data include an inventory report or a dollar measure. Neither factor can be tied to USO’s daily gain here. The clearer demand signal comes from India, where Russian crude imports fell 16.5% in August to about 2.1 million barrels per day. Preliminary September figures put them at 1.9 million barrels per day.

Vostok Oil starts exports below its original target

Rosneft has begun commercial shipments from Vostok Oil’s new Arctic terminal, Bukhta Sever, on the Taimyr Peninsula. In September, three ice class tankers loaded about 250,000 metric tons. Two took the cargo to Murmansk for transfer between vessels; the third sailed east toward Asia through the Northern Sea Route. Another tanker is waiting to load.

Industry sources expect exports to average about 150,000 barrels per day this year, just 7.5% of the 2 million barrels per day once planned. Much of the initial supply comes from Rosneft’s mature Vankor fields, rather than the northern fields that are central to the project’s expansion plans.

Sanctions and infrastructure shape the supply outlook

Rosneft says development of northern fields, including Payakha, could raise exports to around 600,000 barrels per day in the second half of 2027 and 1 million barrels per day by 2030. Vostok spans 13 fields with an estimated 50 billion barrels of low sulfur crude. A 790 kilometer pipeline links the development to Bukhta Sever, where the company plans a 100 tank storage hub.

The project’s path to export has been slowed by sanctions, investor departures and construction delays. Trafigura and Vitol withdrew after Western sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022. Rosneft turned to domestic financing and asset sales, and shipments fell years behind schedule.

The Arctic route offers Russia another way to move oil, away from Baltic and Black Sea infrastructure hit by Ukrainian drone attacks. Yet the new supply arrives as a major buyer trims purchases. A new United States sanctions law provides for tariffs of up to 100% on goods from major buyers of Russian oil and gas. Russia produced about 9.9 million barrels per day of oil and condensate in 2025, compared with nearly 13.6 million in the United States.

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