Mikhail Leontiev, press secretary of Russian Petroleum Corporation (Russian Petroleum), said on February 28 that Russian Petroleum is willing to cooperate with China in the whole industrial chain covering the fields of oil exploration, exploitation, processing and marketing.

Leontiev was interviewed by reporters at the Vankol Oilfield in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk border area on the same day. Leontiev said that in recent years, the Russian and Chinese energy sector has continuously strengthened exchanges. The Russian-Chinese Energy Business Forum held in Beijing in November last year further promoted the direct dialogue between the two countries’energy industry, and improved the efficiency of implementing cooperation projects and attracting investment.

Leontiev said that China’s oil drilling and oil service equipment market is developing rapidly. Russian Petroleum has a strong interest in these two types of equipment from China. It has signed supply contracts with several Chinese enterprises and imported drilling equipment, drilling pumps and oil pipelines.

According to reports, Vankol Oilfield is exploited and operated by a subsidiary company of Russian Petroleum. Its recoverable reserves of oil and gas condensate oil amount to 480 million tons, with an annual output of more than 20 million tons. Vankol Oilfield has been exporting oil to China through Russia’s East Siberia-Pacific pipeline since 2009. It is currently one of the main oil sources for the pipeline to transport oil to China.

According to the data of Russian Petroleum, Russia’s total oil exports to the East increased by 24.1% to 59.2 million tons in 2018, of which oil exports to China accounted for more than 84%.

Leontiev said that Russia and China jointly develop oil and gas resources in the Arctic continental shelf and the Far East and jointly develop ships suitable for the Arctic waterway, which is expected to create a new growth point for energy cooperation between the two sides. Russia-China energy cooperation can further cover the whole industry chain, including oil and gas exploitation and sales, localization of machinery and equipment production, development of systematic solutions, digitalization of energy and financing project management, etc.