MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft expects a substantial advance payment under the Chinese contract for oil delivery, deputy company president Svyatoslav Slavinsky said during a phone conference with investors Wednesday.

“We expect a substantial sum as prepayment for oil supplies from the Chinese side. Everything is proceeding in line with the contract,” Slavinsky said.

Cooperation between Rosneft and China's CNPC

Russian oil giant Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) this month agreed to further develop their strategic partnership.

Current cooperation between Russia's Rosneft and China's CNPC includes Rosneft’s crude oil supplies to China under a long-term contract.

In 2009, Rosneft and Russia’s oil pipeline operator Transneft signed a contract with China’s CNPC on the delivery of 15 million tons of oil annually during 15 years. In turn, China disbursed a $15 billion loan to Rosneft and a $10 billion loan to Transneft.

First crude oil deliveries under the contract started in 2011. In June 2013, Rosneft signed another contract with CNPC on the delivery of 363 million tons of oil during 25 years (14.4 million tons annually).

Along with that, the joint venture Vostok-Energy established by Rosneft and CNPC is exploring and extracting hydrocarbons in the Irkutsk Region in East Siberia while the joint venture Vostok-Petrochemicals was set up to build the Tianjin refinery and sell refined oil products in China and on Asian markets.

Both companies are set to make an investment decision on the construction of the Tianjin refinery in March 2016. The refinery’s construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

Rosneft and CNPC also intend to take efforts to develop LNG projects, including the potential supplies of Russian liquefied natural gas to China.