BEIJING, Dec. 7 -- Russian state oil company OAO Rosneft's second joint venture with China National Petroleum Corp is likely to be formed next year to tap refining and gas station services in China, a Russian official said yesterday.

    Rosneft will hold 49 percent in the venture and CNPC 51 percent, said Sergey Goncharov, Rosneft's chief representative for Asia Pacific, at the third Sino-Russo-Kazakh Oil & Gas Forum in Shanghai.

    CNPC will have three of the five seats on the venture's board, he said.

    Goncharov said the venture, to be set up near Beijing, will have annual refining capacity of some 10 million tons and operate around 300 gasoline stations. Construction will be completed by 2010.

    The two partners in October signed a deal to form a venture in Russia, in which Rosneft will hold 51 percent. The venture will focus on upstream energy exploration and production.

    Goncharov said yesterday Rosneft is happy to use CNPC's technological know-how in energy extraction and processing.

    The series of deals came after CNPC bought a 500 million U.S. dollars slice of Rosneft's 10.4 billion dollars initial public offering in July, deepening energy cooperation between China and Russia.

    Rosneft and CNPC have also cooperated in the Sakhalin-1 natural gas project in Russia, which will supply China's northeastern region.

    On how Rosneft can export natural gas at a reasonable price to China, where prices are usually lower, Goncharov said the firm is negotiating with China and OAO Gazprom.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)