In the past five years, the crude oil trade via rail transport between China and Russia has continued to grow, said Chen Geng, General Manager of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on Wednesday.

Chen made the remark at a high-level Sino-Russian economic forum, which was seen as an opportunity for the two countries to discuss detailed trade issues.

In 2005, CNPC imported crude oil of 5.18 million tons from Russia through the eastern railway, 4.4 million tons of which were from the Russian oil company Rosneft, Chen said.

In July 2005, CNPC and Rosneft signed an agreement for long-term cooperation, and on Tuesday the two sides signed three deals on oil and natural gas cooperation, including an agreement, in principle, between the CNPC and Rosneft for forming joint ventures on further oil cooperation.

Meanwhile, a memorandum of understanding between CNPC and Russia's natural gas company Gazprom for natural gas supply to China and a summary of negotiations between CNPC and Transneft, a Russian pipeline transport company, were also signed.

The oil and natural gas cooperation between the two countries serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples and has a bright future, Chen said.

The two sides should grasp the current opportunity to boost bilateral cooperation in this field, he said.

Russia has become one of China's major energy suppliers. As Chinese economy has been growing fast, it has been importing more crude oil from foreign countries.

Source: Xinhua