Russian And US Energy Ministers Discussed In Moscow The Situation In The World Oil Markets

Russian energy minister Igor Yusufov and his US counterpart Spencer Abraham discussed in Moscow on Wednesday the situation in the world oil markets. According to the press service of the Russian energy ministry, the sides pointed out that the world oil prices should be just both for its producers and consumers. The US Secretary of Energy supported the idea of creating a third body by countries which are major oil producers and exporters but not OPEC members. The sides also discussed the question on the forthcoming meeting of G8 energy ministers scheduled for May 2-3, 2002 in the USA. A number of questions concerned the implementation of agreements in the energy sphere reached in the course of the Russian president's visit to the USA. Yusufov highly assessed investments of the US companies in the Russian economy, in particular in the development of deposits on the basis of Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). Among successful examples he called Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-3 projects as well as capital investment of the US companies in the Russian oil production. Abraham believes that these projects as well as the commissioned oil pipeline of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium are good signs for the US companies, the signs showing the state of the investment climate in Russia. Yusufov has pointed out that Russia is interested in cooperation with the USA in coal production. In this connection Abraham said that two billion dollars are being allocated at the initiative of the US president for the development of new technologies for the coal industry and expressed hope for collaboration with Russia in this sphere. The heads of the two ministries agreed on creating a joint working group for bilateral cooperation.