MOSCOW, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's state-run energy giant Gazprom and integrated oil and gas firm PetroCanada confirmed their interest in long-term cooperation in the sector, Gazprom said Thursday.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Ron Brenneman, president and CEO of the Calgary-based company, discussed joint projects that are likely to focus on shipping Russian liquefied natural gas to North American markets.

In October 2004 the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to study opportunities for starting LNG deliveries to North America by 2009. They have also agreed to conduct a feasibility study into the construction of a gas liquefaction plant in Russia's Leningrad Region, of which St Petersburg is the center.

PetroCanada has upstream operations in Canada, the United States, Europe, South America and North Africa, and downstream operations in North America.