Russia’s Rosneft agreed to explore and develop five fields in Iraq’s Kurdistan as it seeks to become a key player in one of the world’s newest and fastest growing oil provinces, according to Reuters.

Rosneft’s CEO, Igor Sechin, said “The agreement sets an example of a well-weighed investments in one of the key middle eastern regions which will make it possible for the company to expand its production and exploration geography, provide feed-stock for Rosneft growing refining network and to raise profitability of our international assets”.

Moreover, Rosneft will get access to a major regional transportation system with the capacity of 700,000b/d, the company said. It is planned to expand capacity to more than 1mb/d by the end of 2017, RT News Network informed.

“It is a fairly large supply contract on favorable terms for Rosneft. As a result, we get access to a large pipeline that goes from Kurdistan to Turkey. It’s a contract for 20 years,” Rosneft spokesman, Mikhail Leontyev, said.