(EnergyAsia, October 21 2014, Tuesday) — Russia’s largest energy firm, Rosneft, said it and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have agreed to expand their strategic partnership by venturing into liquefied natural gas projects, and accelerating the joint construction of a long-delayed oil refinery in China and development of upstream projects in Russia.

Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and CNPC vice president Wang Dongjin signed the agreement in Moscow last week in the presence of Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The two companies expect to make an investment decision on the proposed 300,000 b/d refinery in Tianjin city in March 2016, with construction completed by the end of 2019. This represents a year’s advance on the project’s timeline from an earlier announcement which had targeted the investment decision by early 2017 and plant completion by end-2020.

After holding a groundbreaking ceremony on the project in September 2010, CNPC, the majority owner of the refinery with a 51% stake, and Rosneft, failed to make any progress on its construction.

The partners were less specific on their LNG venture with a pledge to “apply joint efforts to expand the strategic cooperation…which embraces potential Russian LNG supplies to China,” according to the Rosneft statement.

“Russia and China are interested in deepening and expanding cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Our companies have created a favorable environment for cooperation and we intend to further promote long-term mutually beneficial collaboration,” said Mr Sechin.