MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratified an agreement to annually sell up to 31 million tons of oil to China, the head of Russia’s state-run oil company Rosneft said Friday.
Under the deal, to remain in force until 2038, oil exports will begin as soon as next year, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told journalists after a meeting with Putin.
The deal will reshape the geography of oil exports from Russia, currently the world’s largest producer of crude. Most Russian oil currently goes to Europe via a network of pipelines from West Siberia, while only a fifth of the country’s oil is exported to Asia.
Sechin, a key ally of Putin, earlier said Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) would jointly develop three offshore fields in the Barents Sea and eight oil deposits in East Siberia.
In 2009, Russia completed construction of a 2,700 kilometer (1,700 mile) pipeline across Siberia to China’s Manchuria region.
