The field was discovered at the world's northern-most well, Universitetskaya-1, in September proving the potential of the East-Prinovozemelskiy-1 licence area in the Kara Sea.

The highly contentious well drew the ire of environmental groups for its location, but was drilled successfully over six weeks, despite US and EU sanctions getting in the way due to ExxonMobil's involvement.

The last raft of sanctions imposed by the US involved a ban on the export of goods, services and technology that support exploration and production of Russian deepwater, Arctic offshore and shale projects looking for oil.

The Russian Federal Geological Fund has now registered the new field under the name Pobeda, with recoverable reserves of 130 million tonnes of oil and 499 billion cubic feet of gas.

According to Rosneft, experts have placed the volume of oil and gas resources in the Kara Sea as comparable to the entire resource portfolio of Saudi Arabia, topping the Gulf of Mexico, Brazilian Shelf and the shelf of Alaska and Canada.

The Pobeda gas reserves were observed in chalk deposits, while the oil was found in Jurassic sediments.

The sea depth at the Universitetskaya drill site is about 81m, with the location lying 250km offshore Russia's north coast.