Shell has struck a major new alliance in Russia just seven months after being forced to hand over a majority $7.5 billion (£3.7 billion) stake in one of the country’s most lucrative offshore developments.

The Anglo-Dutch group today said that it had entered into a broad partnership with Rosneft, the Kremlin-controlled oil giant, to cooperate in oil production and refining projects in the country.

The agreement mirrors a similar deal being thrashed out by Gazprom, the Kremlin’s favoured gas company, and BP. This is expected to focus on the gas market and in particular liquefied natural gas investments.

It was Gazprom that picked up the majority stake in Sakhalin-2 from Shell and its partners in the project in December after Russian regulators threatened to freeze work on the site.

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The move was seen in the West as yet another example of the Russians prising back a majority stake in the country’s biggest oil and gas assets.

Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Shell, has repeatedly played down talk of any problem with the Kremlin, but insisted that Russia should hold back from changing the terms of an agreement during the lifetime of a contract.

Today, Mr van der Veer said he was looking forward to a “successful cooperation” with Rosneft.

He said: "Russia is a strategic growth area for Shell and we are committed to developing our business in cooperation with Russian companies across the entire range of the energy business.

“Shell with its global experience of applying technologies in an integrated way will complement Rosneft’s strengths and experience on the Russian market.”

A source close to the talks said that the two companies were considering a number of joint projects in Russia and one more country.

As well as Sakhalin, Shell is currently developing the Salym onshore oil project and has often spoken of its desire for a third big development in the country.

Rosneft, worth an estimated $60 billion, has more than 6.6 billion tonnes of oil reserves on its books.

Sergei Bogdanchikov, Rosneft's president, said: “The agreement (with Shell) reached today will allow our companies to seriously widen the scope and geography of our work.”

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