Russian oil giant Rosneft and independent natural gas producer Itera have signed a strategic agreement to jointly develop gas fields in Russia, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
The two companies will set up a joint venture to manage the gas assets of Itera and Rosneft in the gas-rich Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region in Russia's Arctic.
"Overall recoverable reserves (managed by) the joint venture will amount to 60 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons and 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas in the initial stage. It will be able to produce and sell over 40 billion cu m of gas per year in nearest future," the companies said in the statement.
Rosneft and Itera do not rule out purchases of other gas assets as well.
