Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, plans to spend as much as 600 billion rubles ($24.4 billion) through 2020 to boost oil production in eastern Siberia, Chief Executive Officer Sergei Bogdanchikov said.

The state-owned company will spend 50 billion rubles this year and 600 billion rubles over the 12-year period as it seeks to raise annual oil output to 170 million tons by 2020, Bogdanchikov said today at a conference in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. The company produced 102 million tons of oil last year.

The Russian government is encouraging the development of the largely untapped eastern Siberian oil fields as western Siberian reserves are being depleted. A pipeline now under construction from eastern Siberia to Skovorodino, near the Chinese border, will allow Russia to extend its oil shipments to neighboring China. The pipeline is scheduled to open in September 2009.

East Siberian oil fields, such as Vankor, which has an estimated 500 million tons in reserves, will account for 60 to 70 percent of the increase in production, Bogdanchikov said.

``Vankor will play the paramount role in our strategy,'' he said, adding that Rosneft expects to start production on the field by the end of this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in Krasnoyarsk through the Moscow office at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net; Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 16, 2008 11:29 EST