MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Russia and China will sign on Monday a number of intergovernmental agreements on energy cooperation, including one on a $400 billion natural gas deal agreed in May, a Russian government source said.

The intergovernmental agreement to seal the deal to supply Russian natural gas to China via an eastern route will be signed during a meeting of the two countries’ prime ministers, Dmitry Medvedev and Li Keqiang, in Moscow, the source said.

Russia’s gas producer Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed in May that Russia will supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of gas starting from 2018-2019. The deal now needs to be signed by both governments. According to a Russian government document, the agreement between the Chinese and Russian governments is a condition under which the deal, signed in May, can come into force.

“Energy remains the driver of economic cooperation between Russia and China,” the government source said. “Our countries are consistently moving towards forming a strategic energy alliance.”

Russia's state-controlled oil and gas giants, Rosneft and Gazprom, will also sign agreements to deepen energy cooperation with CNPC.

“This year marks a breakthrough in the gas sphere,” the source said, noting that the two countries also had “a common understanding of the need to intensify negotiations on western route supplies.”

Natural gas will be supplied to China via the east-bound Power of Siberia pipeline, the construction of which was launched by President Vladimir Putin on September 1.

Gazprom said it is capable of more than doubling natural gas supplies to China to 100 billion cubic meters annually, including via the western route connecting fields in Western Siberia with north-west China through the Altai republic.