Chinese and Russian companies are now actively negotiating on a new China-Mongolia-Russia natural gas pipeline project, the National Energy Administration said on Wednesday.

China will continue to support companies in carrying out research and consultations in accordance with commercial principles, said Zhang Jianhua, head of the NEA, at a news conference in Beijing.

The project is designed to carry 50 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to China per year upon completion, which will bring Russia's annual gas supply to China to 100 billion per year according to Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy enterprise and one of the project's undertakers.Zhang said energy is the foundation of pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia, adding the two will build a closer energy partnership, support companies from both sides to promote cooperation in various fields of energy, maintain the stability of the supply chain in the energy sector and jointly contribute to the stable development of the global energy industry.