Royal Dutch Shell said it is still interested in further expansion in Russia as it signed a strategic co-operation deal with Rosneft, the country’s biggest oil company by market value, in spite of its bruising experience last year over the Sakhalin-2 project.

The two companies gave no details of the specific projects they would pursue as part of the deal but said they would co-operate in both oil and gas, upstream and downstream, in Russia and internationally.