OAO Lukoil, Russia's largest oil producer, and China National Petroleum Corp will cooperate on oil and gas production abroad and on supplying hydrocarbons to China.

Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov and CNPC Chairman Jiang Jiemin signed an agreement in Beijing "to expand cooperation in current projects and work on projects for production, exploration and refining of oil, gas and oil products" abroad, Lukoil said in a statement on Saturday. CNPC is China's biggest oil company.

The partners will also consider "opportunities to cooperate on supplying oil and gas to China and refining hydrocarbons" in the country, according to Moscow-based Lukoil.

China, one of the world's largest energy users, is seeking energy supplies as its economy expands at an annual rate of 11.9 percent, the fastest pace in more than a dozen years. The leaders of China and Kazakhstan, the second-biggest energy supplier in the former Soviet Union after Russia, last month agreed to finance and build a network of pipelines to supply China with oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region.

The joint projects of Lukoil and CNPC in Kazakhstan include an equally co-owned Kumkol oil field and a Northern Buzachi field, in which CNPC holds a 50 percent stake and Lukoil has a 25 percent holding, the Russian company said in the statement. The two companies also each hold a 20 percent stake in an offshore international venture to explore for oil and natural gas in Uzbekistan's side of the Aral Sea, according to Bloomberg News.