Energy ministers of the G8 industrial nations have confirmed "Russia's new role as a major source of stable energy for Western economies in the future," a report said yesterday (Monday) after they met in Detroit.
Energy ministers of the G8 industrial nations have confirmed "Russia's new role as a major source of stable energy for Western economies in the future," a report said yesterday (Monday) after they met in Detroit.
Russia's envoy, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov, used the forum to confirm the state was keen and set to see the industry's activities upgraded, Moscow analysts noted in a report saying the minister said the government sought to encourage Western investment in the sector to boost production.
This would also help develop export markets for crude supplies as well as higher-earning value-added oil products, he was quoted as saying. Yusufov's comments give further substance to remarks already on record from the minister that Russia sought expanded refining capacity to produce multiple products sheltering it from swings in an unpredictable market for crude.
This has already led to reportedly dramatic increases in fuel oil, diesel and gasoline exports to European markets.
A research note on the Detroit meeting from Moscow investment bank Troika Dialog quoted reports saying Yusufov believed the United States could become a "partner allocating considerable financing to the energy sector of the Russian economy."
Analysts also noted comments that the minister had called on the European Union to increase its own investment spending in the Russian energy sector to ensure growth and stability of supply.
Several recent reports have referred to new moves under way to develop Russia's oil industry, pursuing what observers believe is its goal of becoming the global industry's giant, surpassing even Saudi Arabia's paramount position.
Russia's February move to establish a working group including leaders of the country's top oil companies has geared up the drive to address structural problems, according to observers from respected U.S. analytical think-tank Stratfor.com.
Acquisitions, infrastructure upgrades and new field development in northwest Russia, Siberia, Central Asia, the Balkans and Central Europe were powering the push ahead, they said.
Further news now from the Detroit meeting said that to cut transportation costs, Russia had plans to build new deepwater terminals and ports on the shores of the northerly Barents Sea.
And reports attributed to the newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun added that Russia would ask Japan to join it in a major natural gas pipeline project linking Japan and a Russian city.
The plan was unveiled, Troika Dialog said, when the Russian energy minister met Japanese Economics Minister Takeo Hiranuma in Detroit. The project is said to entail transporting natural gas from Nakhodka, facing the Sea of Japan, by way of sea-floor pipelines.
Other moves analyzed by Stratfor a few days ago said Russia and Croatia had now agreed to link up two of their oil transport networks, increasing Russian oil companies' export capacity and boosting Russia's economic presence in the Balkans.
The two state-owned transport firms Transneft and JANAF plan to join together their Druzhba and Adria networks in what was seen as a multiple coup for Moscow, a commentary said.
This would mean an almost wholesale switch for Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Yugoslavia from Middle Eastern to Russian oil supplies. Total demand of around 250,000 barrels a day was set to increase quickly as the states recovered from the Balkan wars and lined up for European Union membership, the analysts said.
Russian producers would win permanent access to the Adriatic Sea through the Croatian port of Omisalj, a deepwater harbour capable of supporting tankers larger than those at anchor in any Russian port.
"Washington has dropped its quiet opposition to Russian export routes, opening a number of doors to Russian companies," Stratfor observed.
"Since Russian oil can compete on the U.S. market only when delivered in supertanker-sized quantities, the Adria-Druzhba linkage raises the possibility of Russia directly supplying the United States," its commentary said.