MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry is studying four projects proposed by oil major Rosneft for financing from the National Welfare Fund, Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev said on Thursday.

“We are so far working with four projects that were submitted. They comprise a project for the Far Eastern ship-building center, in which Rosneft is a co-shareholder, a project of an oil refinery and another couple of projects,” Ulyukayev said.

The economy minister declined to specify the sums, which could be allocated from the National Welfare Fund to finance Rosneft’s projects.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov earlier said Rosneft expected to get 2 trillion rubles ($37 billion) from the country’s oil wealth fund for its projects amid sectoral sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on Russia, barring Russian energy companies and banks from raising medium- and long-term financing on western markets.

Media reports later said Rosneft’s request for aid from the National Welfare Fund had increased to 2.4 trillion rubles ($44.6 billion).