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Germany was the biggest customer of Russian crude in 2011, buying about 700,000 barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China ranked fourth behind the Netherlands and Poland.

The deal with CNPC to drill in three areas of the Pechora and Barents Seas is another example of the growing clout of China’s biggest oil company, which was also offered eight onshore blocks in Russia.

Earlier this month, CNPC agreed to buy a $4.2 billion stake in gas fields off Mozambique from Eni, a deal that will make it a partner in the world’s second-largest gas export terminal.

“CNPC is becoming a prime player outside China and they’re likely to get more aggressive in acquiring oil and gas assets around the world,” said Sonia Song, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc.

CNPC’s PetroChina will raise overseas output to 60 percent of its total in the next eight years.

Overseas Drive

The explorer and refiner plans to invest at least $60 billion this decade in energy assets stretching from the Middle East and Central Asia to the Americas and Asia-Pacific, Vice President Sun Longde said March 21 after the company reported a 13 percent drop in net income last year. The drive overseas is to help counter losses at home from state price controls on gas and other fuels.

Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, signed a memorandum with CNPC on building a pipeline along the so-called eastern route with shipments of 38 billion cubic meters a year, starting in 2018, CEO Alexei Miller told reporters in the Kremlin. Gas deliveries may rise to 60 billion cubic meters.

The deal, which has been under discussion for more than 10 years, may include advance payments from China, Miller said. Gazprom and CNPC plan to set legally binding terms for supplies in June and sign a deal by the end of this year, he said.

“Diversifying export markets has long been on the agenda” for Gazprom, Oswald Clint, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said in a note for clients. If pricing can be decided, this could “mark the beginning of one of the largest supply agreements in a decade.”

Bloomberg News