(Yicai Global) April 9 -- China's Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group has inked a RUB2.8billion (USD37.3 million) oilfield drilling service contract with a unit of Russia's largest non-state gas producer NOVATEK to provide drilling services in the Yarudeyskoye Oilfield in Siberia, the Chinese firm better known as ZPEC announced yesterday.

This is the third drilling service contract signed between the Chinese private driller and NOVATEK’s Yargeo subsidiary, and all the three projects are in in the Yarudeyskoye Oilfield. The second contract penned in early February was worth RUB1.7 billion (USD22.7 million).

The project will be priced and settled in rubles, and the project owner will pay based on its progress. The contract is valid until April 29, per the contract, ZPEC said.

ZPEC’s shares [SHA:603619] rose2.13percent to close at CNY15.05 (USD2.13).

The Yarudeyskoye Oilfieldis in Russia's oil- and gas-rich Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the country's far north. The area's natural gas production makes up 90 percent of Russia's total and around 17 percent of the globe's.

ZPEC has been actively expanding its drilling service business overseas in recent years and secured oilfield drilling service contracts from Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan and Algeria. It also signed a contract with a unit of Russia's largest oil company Rosneft for drilling services in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in May last year.

Editor: Ben Armour