Azeri state energy company Socar, faced with falling oil output, wants to tap vast hydrocarbon reserves in Russia as part of a cooperation agreement with Rosneft, Socar‘s president said.

Rovnag Abdullayev made the comment on Socar‘s planned partnership with Rosneft, the world’s top listed oil producer, a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to clinch a concrete energy deal on a rare trip to Azerbaijan.

“Rosneft has huge reserves. It owns great prospective projects in the east and north of Russia. We want to participate in these projects. Big companies, such as Chevron, Exxon and BP are all involved in these projects. We also want to take part,” Abdullayev told reporters.

A decline in oil production in Azerbaijan, which depends heavily on energy product sales for revenue, had previously raised concerns in the former Soviet republic, where BP operates the huge Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfields. Oil output in Azerbaijan stabilised this year near average 2012 levels, with first-half output of 672,000 barrels a day (bpd). Last month, Socar and Russia’s Rosneft signed a vague cooperation agreement without a concrete deal.

Western oil majors such as BP, Statoil and ExxonMobil have dominated the Azeri oil industry since the collapse of the Soviet Union while relations between Moscow and Baku have been mostly cool. Russia has long tried to increase its presence in Azerbaijan, a country Europe hopes will help lessen its dependence on Russian gas after Moscow’s “gas wars” with Ukraine disrupted deliveries in 2006 and 2009.

“Currently we are exploring opportunities with Rosneft for cooperation. There are ongoing negotiations between our companies,” Abdullayev said.