MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s biggest oil producer Rosneft said on Saturday that China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) would take a 40 percent stake in its planned petrochemical complex VNHK in Russia’s Far East.
“The participation of ChemChina will allow Rosneft to optimise the project financing and jointly organise sales of the high-margin products of the future complex on the premium markets of the Asia-Pacific region,” Rosneft said in a statement.
Rosneft and ChemChina also signed a new one-year oil supply contract, the Russian company said, without providing volumes or financial details.
In June 2015, Rosneft signed a one-year contract to supply up to 200,000 tonnes of crude oil to ChemChina per month.
TASS news agency quoted Igor Sechin, Rosneft chief executive officer, as saying the company did not plan to reduce its crude supplies to China and would defend its market position amid competition with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, and Iran.
“We will stick to the volumes we have agreed on. It’s around 40 million tonnes (per year),” Sechin was quoted as saying.
Russia was China’s largest crude oil supplier in May for a third month in a row, having surpassed imports from Saudi Arabia.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Mark Potter)