Russia and China have reportedly been involved in talks to establish an energy partnership following a meeting of officials at the 21st China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee in Russia.

According to a local Chinese media source, the high-level energy cooperation partnership would better benefit the two countries and the two peoples, citing Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang.

Ding was speaking via a joint statement on Tuesday, following a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Ding said that under the guidance of China and Russia, the two nations’ existing energy cooperation had already formed an all-round, cross-sector, in-depth and high-level pattern.

Ding added that the two countries should deepen cooperation among upstream, midstream and downstream operations.

He also proposed to deepen bilateral ties across the energy industry’s segments and optimise energy cooperation policies to help push along the development of new projects.

China is now Russia’s biggest energy client, taking in more than 15 billion cubic meters of Russian gas via the Gazprom-operated Power of Siberia pipeline in the first half of the year.

However, Offshore Technology reported in January that the start of construction on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline is expected to face delays, Mongolia’s Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene warned at the time.

The pipeline has been a priority for Russia for more than a decade. However, Europe’s sanctioning of Russian energy products after its invasion of Ukraine has elevated its importance to Moscow to new heights.

Just under a year ago, the United Petrochemical Company, a Russian entity, reached an agreement with China’s Xuan Yuan Industrial Development to co-finance the development of a 5bn yuan ($685.41m) trans-shipment oil facility.

Located in the Amuro-Khinganskaya Advanced Special Economic Zone, the facility will be built near the railway bridge between Russia’s Nizhneleninskoye and China’s Tongjiang.

Russia recently reported that oil and gas budget revenues jumped by more than 73% in the January–May 2024 period compared with the same time last year.

According to data from Russia’s Finance Ministry, between January and May 2024, revenues for the Russian federal budget from oil and gas reached Rbs4.95trn ($55.7bn).