(EnergyAsia, June 25 2013, Tuesday) — Russia fast-tracked its largest oil producer Rosneft towards global supermajor status by helping it secure a record number of landmark oil and gas agreements with international companies and two governments.

At the conclusion of last week’s 17th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced and watched as the company signed at least 15 separate agreements with US major ExxonMobil, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China Development Bank, Italy’s ENI, Norway’s Statoil, Japan’s Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co (Sodeco) and Marubeni Corp, GE of the US, Europe’s Vitol, Trafigura, SARAS and Sanors, and the governments of Croatia and Russia’s Murmansk region. There was even time for a memorandum of understanding with WWF to cooperate on nature conservation.

The most important of these agreements were for the world’s largest long-term supply of crude oil to CNPC worth more than US$270 billion, the groundbreaking liquefied natural gas deals with Japanese and European firms, and upstream development projects with ExxonMobil.

With ExxonMobil, Rosneft will establish joint ventures to explore and develop projects in the Kara Sea, Black Sea, and the Russian Arctic, and manage their joint West Siberia tight oil project.

Rosneft will work with Statoil to develop the Barents Sea and the Lisyansky, Kashevarovsky, Perseevsky and Magadan 1 blocks in the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as development of shale reserves in the Samara region. It and ENI will develop projects in the Barents Sea and the Black Sea under an earlier agreement signed in 2012.

US technology and engineering giant GE will provide support to improve Rosneft’s performance in upstream and downstream projects.