Vladimir Putin's speech:

Friends, colleagues,

I am very happy to be here today, and to have this opportunity to celebrate the beginning of operations at the Vankor oil and gas field with all those present today, as well as with the employees of Rosneft and Vankorneft.

Vankor is the first, and therefore, one of the most important steps in the realisation of a large-scale strategic project fоr the comprehensive development of fuel deposits in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous Area. A whole new Russian oil-and-gas-producing province should appear here in the next few years. Hundreds of kilometres of gas and oil pipeline will be laid, roads and electric power plants will be built, and dozens of deposits will be developed, literally from nothing.

I said that pipelines will be built and laid, but you have already built and laid 550 km of pipelines. But it sounds primitive to talk about ‘wells' and ‘pipelines', because we have now seen for ourselves that this work involves the latest technology and a very careful attitude to nature.

And I'm particularly pleased about... I have been to many oil platforms in this country. Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov told me proudly that we are doing no worse than... we are doing better than..., and then he named the companies that I have already mentioned - LUKoil and other domestic companies operating in different parts of Russia - in protecting the environment, in being careful towards nature.

According to expert prediction, when this province reaches its calculated capacity, it will produce more than 115 million additional tons of oil and condensate annually, which is bound to strengthen substantially the raw materials foundation of our economy and our export potential. It will allow us to use the pipelines to their full capacity for the future projects. These pipelines will bring fuel to the Pacific in the East, and to the North West. The province will produce enough fuel for the ESPO and the BTS-2. Obviously, the project will stimulate the regional economy and provide more money for social services in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Yamal by augmenting the local governments' budgets. The project will also create thousands of jobs.

I believe that such ambitious industrial projects will help to develope the entire Russian economy, and help it overcome the consequences of the current crisis more quickly. It will increase business and investment activity, not only in the fuel and energy complex, but also in related fields, such as construction, metallurgy, and machine building. It will provide contracts for hundreds of factories.

Incidentally, this project is not just the achievement of oil workers. The construction workers who participated in the project also deserve credit. Their work has been excellent. And the fact that we have been able to carry out such a project once again demonstrates the abilities of the engineers and workers who conquered Vankor.

Today, while touring the Far East and Siberia, I visited Yakutia and the Sayan Mountains, and now I'm here, in the north of Krasnoyarsk Territory. Neither our friends and rivals abroad, nor we ourselves really know what we possess. We can hardly imagine what riches our country abounds in.

These resources can and must be developed for hundreds of years. Hundreds of years! But this would not have been possible if we did not have such talented people, many of whom have gathered here today.

Thank you very much. And congratulations.