Bogdanchikov said Rosneft's increased oil supplies to China next year would be sent by rail through Mongolia or through the Kazakh pipeline. There was no word of progress on a planned pipeline to deliver Siberian crude.

Bogdanchikov also said Rosneft expects a gas and oil field on Sakhalin Island in Russia's Pacific Coast to begin production near year, with an expected output of 1.92 million tons per year. China is welcome to bid for supplies from that project, Bogdanchikov said.

Thermonuclear project

In another development, E.P. Velikhov, a Russian academic and renowned thermonuclear expert, said production of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Programme, the world's first experimental fusion reactor, is expected to start from the beginning of next year.

Velikhov said officials in charge of energy management from the seven programme participants the European Union, Russia, China, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan and the United States will meet on November 21 in France to sign a formal agreement to kick off production of parts of the reactor in each country.

Parts of the reactor will finally be assembled in Cadarache in southern France.

The project is estimated to cost US$5 billion and will take 10 years to complete. The European Union will cover 40 per cent of the cost, with the other six participants contributing the rest in equal shares.

Fusion energy is believed to be much safer and more environmentally friendly than traditional nuclear power plants that use nuclear fission. However, it needs extremely high temperatures more than 10 million C to be produced.

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