Russian and Chinese companies have agreed a deal to invest $686m in a Siberian oil transhipment complex, the Reuters news agency reports.

The move is the latest sign of Russia’s turn to the east as its traditional European markets become increasingly unfriendly.

Russia’s United Petrochemical Company (ONGK) and China’s Xuan Yuan Industrial Development will build the facility to deal with the increasing volume of oil exports to China.

Russia is China’s largest crude supplier, taking over from Saudi Arabia. Chinese data showsthat for the first seven months of this year it imported 61 million tonnes of Russian oil, 25% more than the same period in 2022.

The deal to finance the transhipment hub was signed in Vladivostok last week at the Eastern Economic Forum. It will be built at a site in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region near a railway bridge across the Amur River linking Nizhneleninskoye in Russia to Tongjiang in China.

The complex will consist of a terminal with the capacity to store, blend and load almost 6 million tonnes of crude a year. It will also be able to handle oil-and-gas condensate.

There will also be a depot with vertical and horizontal tanks for receiving, storing and dispensing up to 1 million tonnes of petrol and fuel oil.

Finally, there will be a gas-filling complex for the transhipment of LPG. This will be able to handle up to 650,000 tonnes of product a year.