Rosneft subsidiary Itera and General Electric (GE) signed an agreement of intent regarding natural gas processing cooperation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The parties agreed to evaluate opportunities for potential cooperation on natural gas processing using GEtechnology for low-tonnage LNG production.

In particular, the agreement covers analysis of opportunities to cooperate on establishing LNG production at Bratskecogas assets, as well as potential joint work on deploying GE technology and equipment to boost the company’s efficiency and production capacity.

“Gas business is one of the priority dimensions of the company’s business; Rosneft has tripled its gas production in the last two years, and we are glad to develop gas processing with such technologically advanced partner as GE,” Igor Sechin, the chairman of Rosneft’s management board, said.

The development of infrastructure aimed at LNG production will open additional monetization channels for Rosneft’s gas reserves and will enable increased efficiency for Itera Oil and Gas Company consolidated assets.

“Since 2004, GE has designed, manufactured, delivered, and launched more than 140 cryogenic modules globally, including 11 units for the production of LNG and 130 to liquefy carbon dioxide gas. We are confident that our cooperation with Itera on gas monetization will contribute to the modernization of the Russian oil and gas industry,” said Ron Pollett, president and CEO of GE Russia/CIS.