Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photo ahead of a meeting in Beijing, Nov 9, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Beijing and Moscow netted another two giant energy agreements on Sunday, including one to help start early construction of the west route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline.

The pipeline is expected to be completed in 2020 and will provide 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to China through the Altai area of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, sources told China Daily.

President Xi Jinping and his visiting Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, witnessed the signing of 16 agreements on Sunday night, the bulk of them in the energy sector.

In May, the two sides sealed a deal on constructing the east route of the China-Russia gas pipeline, through which Russia will export 38 billion cubic meters of gas a year to China, starting in 2018.

China consumed about 169 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year.

In early September, Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli and Putin witnessed the welding of the first section of the east route in Russia.

Also signed on Sunday was a major agreement that would see oil giant China National Petroleum Corp purchase a 10 percent share of Vankorneft, the upstream subsidiary of Russian oil giant Rosneft and operator of the lucrative Vankor oilfield.

Vankorneft will supply China with $7 billion worth of oil each year, sources said.

Xi and Putin agreed during the meeting that energy cooperation is crucial for the energy security of the two countries, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"Now autumn has set in. It's harvest time. It's time to gather fruit," Xi said.

Xi also said the two countries should give priority to bilateral ties no matter "how the international clouds change".

Putin said that Russian-Chinese cooperation was "very important for keeping the world within the framework of international law, to make it more stable, more predictable".