BEIJING, December 26. /TASS/. The Chinese government supports their companies’ cooperation with Russia, Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the country’s Foreign Ministry, said at a government briefing on Friday.

“Over the past few years Russia and China have reached a certain progress in cooperation on oil supplies. This cooperation is mutually beneficial, it has no winners or losers. China and Russia are strategic partners. Energy cooperation is a very important component of bilateral cooperation,” she said.

“The Chinese government supports companies in their further expansion of cooperation with Russia, including energy cooperation.”

Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft supplies oil to China under a long-term contract. The $270 billion deal with China’s CNPC was signed in 2013, and it envisages supply of about 360 million metric tons of oil to China over 25 years. This year the two energy giants agreed to deepen strategic partnership.

During the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation states in November, the two countries signed a technical agreement which envisages an additional 5 million ton oil supply route from Russia to China in 2015-2017. Later, some Chinese media said the country was a loser in the deal, as it purchases oil from Russia at prices above the world’s ones.

Russia-China energy cooperation

A milestone event for Russia’s energy sector took place in May when gas giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC struck a major deal on gas supplies to China. The contract stipulates that 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas will be annually supplied to China via the eastern route over a period of 30 years. The contract is worth over $400 billion. The deal between the two companies was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing in early November Russia’s Gazprom also signed a framework agreement on gas supplies to China via the western route. A proposed pipeline, known as the Altai route, is intended to carry gas from deposits in Western Siberia to North-Western China. Gas supplies to China via that route may reach 30 billion cubic meters a year. In 2015 the countries will sign at least three key documents on that project.

A major gas pipeline is currently being built in Russia to provide for the gas supplies to China. The construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline was started on September 1. The pipeline’s cost is estimated at $21.3 billion. The pipeline is intended to pump 61 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and will stretch over a distance of 3,968 km (2,465 miles). The pipeline is designed to pump natural gas from the giant Chayanda oil and gas condensate deposit in Yakutia in north-eastern Russia and the Kovykta gas condensate field in the Irkutsk Region in Eastern Siberia to the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.