Russia's twin pillars of energy majesty, Gazprom and Rosneft, have forged an agreement to cooperate on future projects, thus ending the apparent cold war between them.

The gas and oil monopolies have by all accounts been feuding in recent years as they battled against each other for the same government funds and political influence. However, the Russian state-owned companies have now signed a cooperation agreement which will see them jointly develop new projects.

Aleksei Miller of Gazprom and Sergei Bogdanchikov of Rosneft have agreed to form joint ventures for prospecting in eastern Siberia, for building new processing facilities and for exploring overseas opportunities. The deal will also see a more efficient use of distribution infrastructure as the two firms pool their resources.

The new alliance, which runs until 2015, appears to be the latest example of Moscow’s desire to hold all the cards in the domestic energy arena. The new, healthier atmosphere of cooperation between the Russian energy giants comes as foreign investors in Russian are finding it more and more difficult to get on.

Both Gazprom and Rosneft have recently rejected overseas partners for major operations, while foreign companies working on the Sakhalin project have incurred the wrath of the Kremlin.