Russian oil company Rosneft may focus more on Asia as it looks for new partners for exploration and production work in the arctic, a minister said Tuesday.

With U.S. partner Exxon Mobil sitting on the sidelines because of sanctions imposed on the Russian energy sector, Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoy said Rosneft will release new plans for the arctic before the end of the year.

"China has announced its interest to the arctic," he said. "I think Rosneft has to independently choose partners out of countries which have not sanctioned Russia, and therefore here will be the final choice."

In September, Rosneft estimated a discovery in the Prinovozemelskiy-1 license area in the Kara Sea holds at least 700 million barrels of oil.

Russian energy interests have tilted toward Asian economies that are demanding more energy to cope with expansion.

Rosneft last week signed agreements to examine the feasibility of building an oil refinery in northern China through a partnership with the Chinese National Petroleum Corp. Rosneft Chairman Igor Sechin said similar deals highlighted the "systematic development of the large-scale cooperation with our Chinese partners, including the upstream area in the Russian federation."

In May, Russian gas company Gazprom and CNPC signed a 30-year sales agreement that calls for 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year through the so-called Power of Siberia pipeline.