MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. Rosneft plans to deliver up to 50 mln tonnes of oil to China in 2018, the company said after the meeting of the company’s CEO Igor Sechin with First Vice Premier of the State Council of China Han Zheng.

"Partnership with China for us is a deliberate strategic choice. Rosneft sells one third of all exported oil to China. This year the volume of our supplies can reach up to 50 mln tonnes," Sechin said according to the company’s press service.

"We have reached a great deal of mutual trust with our Chinese partners evidenced, in particular, by the agreements signed at the Eastern Economic Forum. We have great hopes for expanding cooperation with the Russian-Chinese Energy Forum. It will be held in November this year, 44 Russian and 35 Chinese companies are invited," the company’s report said.

It was reported earlier that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) may acquire a minority stake in the projects of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft in Siberia. According to the statement, that comes from the terms of the agreement the two companies signed at the Eastern Economic Forum, which is underway in Vladivostok.

"Under the terms of the agreement, CNPC has the opportunity to acquire minority stakes in major oil and gas projects of Rosneft, particularly in Eastern and Western Siberia, and the parties agreed to consider CNPC's offer to provide under market conditions services in exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons at those fields," Rosneft said in a statement.

Rosneft also signed an agreement to set up a joint venture for the construction and operation of a chain of automobile CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations in Russia with China’s Beijing Gas.

Over the past ten years, annual oil supplies from Russia to China increased 4.5-fold to 52.6 mln tonnes, deliveries of oil products - twice to 6.3 mln tonnes (according to the Russian Customs Service). Rosneft accounts for 75% of oil supplies, the report said.