(VOVworld) – Russia will provide an annual pumping of up to 6 million tons of oil to Slovakia for the next 15 years, according to a bilateral agreement signed on Friday.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Slovakian Economic Minister Pavol Pavlis signed a historic 15-year oil delivery contract on December 5th, 2014. (Photo: sputniknews.com)

The agreement, signed by Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Slovak Economic Minister Pavol Pavlis, also proposed an annual transit of another 6 million tons of crude oil via Slovakia to third countries. The oil will be delivered through the 8,900-km Druzhba pipeline while the contracted oil price was not revealed. The newly-signed deal will take effect on January 1, 2015 and is scheduled to expire by the end of 2029. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the South Stream gas pipeline, which was built to deliver Russian natural gas to Europe via the Black Sea to bypass Ukraine, had been dropped due to opposition from the European Union.

Ukraine said it transferred 378 million USD to Russia’s Gazprom as an upfront payment for natural gas, money that should allow shipments interrupted for the past five months to resume.