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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Gazprom Enters Development Talks With Nigeria

By SPENCER SWARTZ
January 7, 2008; Page A9

OAO Gazprom and the Nigerian government are in early talks about a deal by which the Russian natural-gas company would help explore and develop the West African nation’s huge gas resources, a senior Nigerian oil official and Gazprom officials said.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov confirmed the company is in talks with Nigerian officials, saying, “We are interested in Nigeria, and the talks are under way.” He didn’t divulge a time frame.

A person at Gazprom said the company is keen to develop Nigeria’s gas resources but couldn’t provide a timetable for the talks. A Gazprom delegation visited Nigeria in December, this person said, for discussions on a variety of possibilities for participation in Nigeria’s gas sector.

Gazprom’s interest in Nigeria underscores the growing competitive threat of state-run companies to Western energy firms, which have found themselves increasingly losing out on deals to national companies that are often willing to take fewer profits to clinch deals.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer but also has the world’s seventh-largest gas reserves, which until the past decade have been underutilized. For decades, the country has flared, or burned off, most of its gas because of the lack of infrastructure and a tiny domestic market.

Nigeria has built a handful of multi-billion dollar gas-export facilities in the past decade with the help of U.S. and European companies like Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Chevron Corp. Nigeria is a fast-growing gas exporter to the U.S. and Europe.

The government says a no-flare deadline this year for all companies operating in Nigeria remains in place and that financial penalties will be slapped on firms that don’t meet the deadline.

Write to Spencer Swartz at [email protected]

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One Comment

  1. vICTOR says:

    The Russians and the Chinese are now dominating the global oil industry. Africa seems to be the new frontier and as both these countries turn a blind eye to ‘social issues’ on the continent the question is will this help or hinder development in Africa. I think that judging by the progress made by the South African telecoms conglomorates in the past six years by single handedly mobilizing communication in the region Russia and China will do what BP,Shell and other privately held conglomorates have failed to do in Africa…… Develop it that little bit more.

    Victor Cole – oilandgaspress.com

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