Energy cooperation has become a major pillar of the China-Russia economic partnership.  Numbers from China's General Administration of Customs showed Russia was the second largest oil supplier to China last year, an increase in volume by 28 percent compared with 2014. In the same year, China overtook Germany as Russia's top crude oil consumer.

In May 2014, after 10 years of negotiations, China and Russia finally struck a 30-year natural gas deal worth 400 billion US dollars. Under the deal, Russia will supply gas to China via the eastern "Power of Siberia" route, an approximately 3-thousand kilometer long pipeline that traverses the vast Siberia to China's northeast regions.

Chinese firms have also been deeply involved in joint-venture projects of natural gas exploitation with Russia, including the Yamal LNG plant -- a liquefied natural gas mega-project launched in late 2013 and located above the Arctic Circle. Last year, the leader of Russia's petroleum industry, Rosneft, signed an agreement with its Chinese counterpart, Sinopec. Under the deal, Sinopec was authorized to acquire a 49 percent stake in two of Rosneft's subsidiaries.