Medvedev closes Africa tour with oil co-operation pledge
June 28, 2009
By Maria Kolesnikova
Russia regrets late relations with Africa
President promises a more interactive policy
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev concluded a four-day, four-country African trip in Angola, a member of Opec, the organisation of petroleum exporting countries, where he held talks on closer co-ordination of oil policy.
Russian co-operation with the Opec was "particularly important in the current situation, when the oil market is going through serious changes", said Medvedev in Luanda, yesterday after talks with his Angolan counterpart Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
"We're not entirely satisfied with the state of the market," he said. "The oil market shouldn't be dependent on the situation in a single economy." Medvedev said Russia and Opec should co-ordinate more closely their policies on oil, including pricing.
Medvedev's visit to Angola, the first to the southern African country by a Russian head of state, comes after stops in Egypt, Nigeria and Namibia. Medvedev said in Namibia that Russia was "almost late" in returning to Africa.
"We should have started working with our African partners a long time ago."
In Cairo, Medvedev said he had secured the support of Israel and all other involved parties for Middle East peace talks in Moscow by the end of the year.
In Abuja, OAO Gazprom, Russia's gas export monopoly, agreed to create a joint venture with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum valued at $2.5 billion (R20.1bn). The venture will bid in a tender to develop two gas fields with combined reserves of 2.3 trillion cubic metres, according to Boris Ivanov, the head of Gazprom International.
The highlight of his visit to Namibia was an agreement between Namibia's state-owned oil company, Namcor, and OAO Gazprombank, the lending arm of Russia's natural-gas exporter, on financing for construction of an 800 megawatt power station in Namibia valued at as much as $1.2bn, according to Ivanov.
In Luanda, Russia and Angola signed an agreement under which Vnesheconombank, VTB Group and Roseximbank will lend as much as $300 million to Angola for its satellite programme.
They also discussed means to boost trade between the two countries, which stood at $76.3m last year.
Executives from Russian companies, including diamond monopoly ZAO Alrosa, accompanied Medvedev on the trip to Angola.
Alrosa, which has operated in Angola since 1990, has stakes in two joint mining ventures, Catoca and LUO-Camatchia-Camagico, and has said it will explore for diamonds, oil and gas as well as build hydropower plants.
Given the global crisis, "the company plans to focus on existing projects, such as Catoca", said its spokesman, Andrei Polyakov. - Bloomberg
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