Energy high on agenda for Putin visit to China

SHANGHAI: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrives in Beijing on Monday for a visit expected to yield a slew of deals on cooperation in development of oil, gas and other strategic resources, possibly including a major refinery in the north Chinese city of Tianjin.

Nearly three dozen contracts in energy, mining, transportation and infrastructure development, worth more than $5.5 billion in total, are due to be signed during Putin's visit, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, told reporters in Moscow.

Over the weekend, Russian and Chinese negotiators met in Beijing to put the final touches on those agreements, Chinese reports said.

The two sides have "entered a new stage of long-term, strategic cooperation on energy," the official Xinhua News Agency cited Vice Premier Wang Qishan as saying.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin pledged to work with China to further expand crude oil trade and cooperation, Xinhua said.

Earlier this year, Moscow signed a $25 billion agreement to help finance a pipeline to supply oil from its vast, untapped Siberian reserves to fast-growing China - the world's second biggest oil and gas consumer.

In exchange, China was guaranteed a 20-year supply of crude oil _ only part of the $100 billion in China-Russia energy-related deals agreed to this year.

Work on both the Russian and Chinese sections of the Siberian oil pipeline began this spring and is due to wrap up by late 2010, Xinhua said. The pipeline is due to begin supplying China 1.5 million tons of oil annually, starting in 2011.