Russia and China on Tuesday signed an agreement by which Russia will supply an additional 10 million tonnes of crude oil to China each year over the next 10 years, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in Beijing.
"(We) will supply an additional 10 million tonnes of crude oil each year (to China), which will be done by Russia's biggest oil company Rosneft. It means 100 million tonnes in the next 10 years, worth a total of $85 billion," said Medvedev, who is on a two-day official visit to China.
"It is a big sum of money to any country, even to China. It testifies to the fact that we have reached a higher and a brand new level of cooperation," he said during an online chat with netizens from across China via Xinhuanet.com, the official website of Xinhua.
Energy cooperation is an important part of Russian-Sino cooperation, he said. "Russia has a lot of energy resources, while China is a huge market."
Earlier in the day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Medvedev co-chaired the 18th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government to boost bilateral ties. They also witnessed the signing of an array of documents.
Another example of Russian-Sino cooperation, Medvedev said, is that the two countries will jointly construct a joint-venture oil refinery in Tianjin, which will be able to refine 16 million tonnes of crude oil each year.
"It is a high-tech project, which will employ the most advanced oil refinery technologies," he said.
The Tianjin refinery is jointly set up by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, and Rosneft. CNPC holds a 49 percent stake while Rosneft holds the remaining 51 percent.
Chinese official statistics showed China imported 24.33 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia in 2012.
In June, CNPC and Rosneft signed a long-term agreement in St Petersburg for oil deliveries, involving supplies of 365 million tonnes of oil to China in the next 25 years, with an estimated value of 270 billion US dollars.
Medvedev said Russia and China will also cooperate over natural gas supply. The two countries had agreed on a price-setting formula for Russian gas which is to be exported to China, and both sides were negotiating the price itself, he said.
"Although this issue is relatively tough, we will reach consensus soon. (Russia) will supply natural gas to China via a pipeline as soon as possible," he said.
On the nuclear front, the Russian prime minister said Russian-Sino cooperation over nuclear energy had a bright future and Russia was willing to continue such cooperation with China.
Tianwan nuclear power plant in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, which now has four reactors, was a good example of bilateral cooperation over nuclear energy, he said.
