Signing provides great opportunity:

Medvedev seals pacts with Nigeria

NIGERIA: Russia is ready to invest billions of dollars in Nigeria, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday as Moscow flagged up its bid to challenge Chinese and Western influence across Africa.

In a first visit by a Kremlin leader to the west African energy powerhouse, the two countries signed a raft of agreements with Russian gas giant Gazprom unveiling plans to link vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe via a Trans-Saharan pipeline.

"The basis for such work for years to come has been put in place today," Medvedev told reporters after talks with President Umaru Yar'Adua in Abuja.

"The prospects are very good," the Kremlin chief said. Russian potential investment in Nigerian energy sector could be worth "billions of dollars."

Yar'Adua said that the signing "provides a great opportunity" that would take Russian-Nigerian ties to new heights. "If the Trans-Saharan gas project is ever realised, this will be the first trunk pipeline," its chief Boris Ivanov told reporters.

"The company has essentially started its work... Whoever is located on the valves is the king."

The agreement signed between Gazprom International and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) "established a 50/50 joint venture which will pursue joint projects in oil, gas, gas processing and transportation, among other things," he said.

Gazprom is set on further reinforcing its position as a cornerstone supplier for Europe and North America.

The company admitted it was way behind its foreign competitors in Africa, but was ready to mount a challenge to companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil in Nigeria.

Ivanov said "Europe not only knows, it is 'worried' about this plan."

Abuja, Thursday, AFP