Russian oil firm Slavneft said on Wednesday it had made a new oil find in its eastern Siberian field of Kuyumbinsky and put estimated recoverable hydrocarbon reserves at 365 million tonnes (2.5 billion barrels). The firm, controlled by the Russian and Belarus governments, said it had struck oil last week at test well number 217, where hydrocarbons flowed at the rate of 600 cubic metres a day. The field, comparable in size to the largest UK North Sea fields, is located in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region, bordering China, and company officials say China would be the ideal export destination when crude production ultimately starts. Slavneft said it was now in talks with Russian and foreign companies to create a consortium to develop the field and build evacuation infrastructure.
