Abullah bin Mohammed Al Thani, the fund’s chief executive, said it would invest a further $2bn on top of $500m of existing investments in the country. Some of the investments would be made jointly with the $10bn sovereign Russian Direct Investment Fund, its partner in a deal last summer for St. Petersburg’s airport, he added.

Rosneft Board of Directors has approved a strategic cooperation agreement with Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore, providing for further cooperation in upstream projects, logistics and global trading.

The U.S. government is to check if sanctions where violated when Russia this week struck a deal to sell a stake in oil producer Rosneft to a consortium of Qatar's sovereign fund and commodities trader Glencore, the White House said.

Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar are to take a 19.5 per cent stake in Russian oil company Rosneft in a surprise €10.5bn deal

Glencore has more than $10bn in short-term credit and has just raised a little under $2.5bn through an equity placing. Even at current commodity prices, it believes it can produce $3bn in free cash flow a year.

Glencore’s oil production surges by 46%

Glencore Xstrata buys Chad-focused oil and gas group Caracal

Kremlin Corp debt weighs in West's standoff with Russia