Russian pension funds are considering investing in Saudi Aramco when it lists its shares later this year, Russia’s top state investment officer has said.

The head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has told Reuters, “We see great interest in the Aramco IPO from Russian pension funds as well as from our Chinese partners.”

He could not disclose the names of the funds or the amount the potential Russian investors were prepared to invest.

“Russia already has significant positions in the oil business so it is hard to expect us taking a very significant stake during the IPO,” said Dmitriev, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

MEED had previously reported that Chinese state-owned oil companies PetroChina and Sinopec had approached Saudi Aramco, as part of a state-run consortium including China’s sovereign wealth fund, to express interest in a direct purchase of the 5 per cent Aramco plans to list.

The development signals increasing cooperation and alignment of energy policies between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s two top oil producers, despite their diplomatic differences and geopolitical standoffs over Syria and Iran.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have been instrumental in leading the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and a group of 11 key non-Opec oil producers into an agreement to reduce production in order to address the global supply glut.

Dmitriev, who two years ago was reportedly the first Russian official to suggest the possibility of a joint oil output deal with Opec, has told Reuters he believes Moscow and Riyadh will continue working “for many more years” towards keeping supply in check to maintain buoyancy of crude prices.