Gazprom is in talks with Nigeria about participating in a multi-billion dollar project to pipe Nigerian gas to Europe across the Sahara. Company chief Alexei Miller announced that the talks were ongoing while on a business visit to Libya.
The Saharan project, with capital costs estimated at about $US 13 billion, would pump up to 30 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe via Niger and Algeria, starting in 2015. Gazprom says it has the expertise and experience to complete such major projects and is therefore naturally attracted to them. Speaking in Libya, Alexei Miller also said that Gazprom and Libya's national oil company had decided to set up a jointventure. This will enable the two majors to co-operate in oil and gas exploration, production, transportation and sales in the North African country. Miller has pointed out Gazprom would also like to co-operate with Libya in field of liquefied gas.