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Rosneft and State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) have announced that they have signed a cooperation agreement.

The document was signed by Rosneft President and Chairman of the Management Board, Igor Sechin, and SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev in the presence of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Rosneft and SOCAR will form a joint venture to cooperate in certain upstream oil and gas projects in various countries, including Russia and Azerbaijan. The companies also agreed to cooperate in marketing and trading operations for hydrocarbons and petroleum products as well as jointly operate certain infrastructure facilities, such as pipelines and terminals.

In a statement, Rosneft said that Sechin and Abdullayev both praised the agreement as being a 'significant step' towards broadening energy cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan.

The agreement is designed to enable both companies to broaden their geographical reach, gain access to new markets and resources and optimize crude oil and petroleum product supplies through the use of existing infrastructure.