China's major Russian coup -- Rosneft

China National Petroleum Corp., the nation's largest oil company, said it purchased some $500 million worth of shares in Russian oil giant Rosneft.

CNPC said Wednesday it paid $7.55 per share for the 66.2252 million shares in Rosneft, which is slated to go public on both the London and Moscow stock exchanges in an initial public offering, one of the largest of its kind worldwide.

"CNPC's subscription of Rosneft shares will further expand cooperation and deepen the long-term cooperative relationship," CNPC said in a statement.

The two sides had agreed to a set of fundamental principles for cooperation in a long-term development strategy agreement, which was inked in July 2005, according to the statement.

CNPC began keeping a close track of the IPO process after receiving Rosneft's invitation to subscribe to its listed shares.

Under their cooperation agreement, Rosneft and CNPC agreed to conduct joint bidding for petroleum exploration and development, as well as equity acquisition and the establishment of a joint venture for upstream activities in Russia and downstream activities in China, the statement said.

Industry analysts think the acquisition has enabled China, the world's second largest energy consumer, to enter the Russian energy market, and give Beijing better access to oil worldwide.