According to Sechin, the company supplied about 40 million tons of oil last year, “thereby providing about 6.5 percent of China’s total raw materials demand.”

The CEO said: “Taking into account the mutual trade turnover on already concluded contracts, the total volume of deals between Rosneft and its Chinese partners will exceed $500 billion by 2035.”

He noted that “Beijing, in turn, is interested in ensuring its energy security and reliable supply channels.”

Statistics show that Russia was the largest crude oil supplier to China for the past two years on an annual basis. Exports of Russian oil to China have more than doubled over the past six years, up by more than 550,000 barrels per day.

In 2011, Russia began supplying China with crude through the Skovorodino-Mohe branch of the ESPO pipeline. That followed Rosneft, Transneft, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signing agreements.

Rosneft and CNPC inked a 25-year oil deal in 2014 worth $270 billion under which the Russian company is expected to supply 360.3 million tons of crude to China. Since then, Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest crude supplier.

Last year, Rosneft agreed crude oil deliveries with China’s CEFC Energy. According to the agreement, the Russian oil major will supply CEFC with 60.8 million tons of oil annually until 2023.