Shell Signs Agreement with Rosneft

Shell has announced a broad alliance agreement with Russian oil company Rosneft to cooperate on oil and gas projects in the country seven months after it was forced to surrender control of the country's vast $21 billion Sakhalin-2 offshore development.

Shell says the agreement provides the opportunity for joint implementation of upstream and downstream oil and gas projects and lays the foundation for a long-term cooperation between the two companies.

Analysts believe the agreement could signal the beginning of the development of a string of lucrative oil and gas fields in eastern Siberia for the British company.

Meanwhile, the Russian Government looks set to auction off the rights to dozens of fields in the region, including Chayandinskoye, which is thought to hold more than three billion barrels of oil and gas reserves