SOCHI, September 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and China will sign an intergovernmental agreement on gas supplies to China via the eastern route in October, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.

“We expect that the intergovernmental agreement will be signed in October,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the Sochi Investment Forum.

He said that the issue of gas supplies to China via the western route had been discussed at the latest consultations with the Chinese side. Apart from that, the consultations focused on cooperation in the electrical energy and coal industries.

Novak said that Russia and China planned to organize a joint venture for the production of fuel pellets (peat-based biofuel) and a company for the production of liquid fuel from coal.