UPDATE 1-Russia's Putin launches Rosneft's Vankor oil field

VANKOR OILFIELD, Russia, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday launched a major new oilfield in the Russian Arctic that will allow the world's No. 2 crude exporter to carve a larger share of Asia's energy-hungry markets. The launch of the Vankor field, owned by state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, should help revive Russian crude production after it dropped last year for the first time in a decade. "This is the first meaningful step toward the complicated extraction of the oilfields of Krasnoyarsk region. In the near future, a new oil and gas province will be established here," Putin said at a ceremony to launch the field. Rosneft, which bought Vankor in 2003, estimates the field's oil reserves at 520 million tonnes. Gas reserves are estimated at 95 billion cubic metres. Annual oil production is set to peak at 25.5 million tonnes, or 510,000 barrels per day, in 2014. Oil from the field will be supplied to China via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline. China agreed last year to lend $15 billion to Rosneft and another $10 billion to oil pipeline monopoly Transneft in exchange for supplies of 300 million tonnes of Russian oil over 20 years. For an analysis on Russian oil supply to China, click on (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, writing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Robin Paxton; editing by Sue Thomas) Keywords: RUSSIA OIL/VANKOR ([e-mail], [phone], Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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