Rosneft, Petronas to Settle Upstream & Downstream Alliance

Russia's Rosneft and Malaysian state-run oil and gas firm Petronas aim to settle an upstream and downstream alliance next year, a Rosneft's top Asia-Pacific region official said yesterday.

The heads of the two firms last month reached broad agreement on cooperation, following the Russian state oil firm's initial public offering (IPO) earlier this year in which Petronas was the largest buyer as a foreign company.


"Petronas has great potential in LNG and GTL. It also has great experience in deep sea drilling ... we can find lots of spheres in common," Sergey Goncharov told reporters on the sidelines of third Sino-Russia-Kazakhstan Forum.


Malaysia is one of the world's leading exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). GTL is a technology that processes natural gas into liquid fuels.


"We have lots of licences to explore offshore," he said, adding that the exploration could be in Russia or a third country.


The alliance is similar to one the Russian firm has embarked on with Chinese firms after their share purchase in Rosneft's IPO.


Rosneft formed an exploration and production firm with China's CNPC to hunt for oil and gas in East Siberia.


The parties have also agreed to set up a refining and fuel distribution firm in China.