RusEnergy

Dec. 6, 2006 - Upstream onLine - Russia's Rosneft and Malaysian state-run producer Petronas aim to settle an upstream and downstream alliance next year, a senior Rosneft official said today. Last month the companies reached a broad agreement on co-operation. "Petronas has great potential in liquefied natural has amd gas-to-liquids. It also has great experience in deep sea drilling...we can find lots of spheres in common," Sergei Goncharov told Reuters on the sidelines of third Sino-Russia-Kazakhstan Forum. "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 outfit has embarked on with Chinese companies after their share purchase in Rosneft's IPO. Rosneft formed an exploration and production venture with China National Petroleum Corporation to hunt for oil and gas in East Siberia. Rosneft has a similar, but more preliminary pact with Sinopec.