Russian Oil Majors Dream of Middle East Fields/New WMW

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com



5//The Daily Star, Lebanon Friday, November 05, 2004

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=9880



RUSSIAN OIL MAJORS DREAM OF MIDDLE EASTERN FIELDS

Energy event looks at Arab, Iranian cooperation

Closing session at Moscow's 4th annual oil and gas meeting sees bid for greater business integration with OPEC partners

By Paul de Zardain
Special to The Daily Star

MOSCOW: For Russia's oil majors, it's time to come knocking at the door of Middle Eastern producers. Crude exports have put the Russian economy into overdrive ever since the ruble meltdown of 1998. But petrodollars only go so far and Russia would like to export technology to countries like Iran, where enhanced oil recovery is necessary to boost production at heavily eroded fields. Russian industry is also looking to team up with U.S. firms looking for greenfield sites in Iraq.

SNIP

"Both regions are key energy suppliers. And long-term oil futures suggest that these prices will stay firm. Given this outlook, the world's major oil exporters share common issues," said a spokesman for the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).

SNIP

"Developing technology should be the main platform for cooperation. Dependence on one country, or on a single technology, is not in the best interest of the Middle East," said A.G. Munawar of Saudi Aramco. "I am talking to Russian companies so that we might rely on you for technological advances," he added.

Oil analysts here are counting on windfall prices through 2005, thanks in part to a second term in the White House for U.S. President George W. Bush. It is no secret that Russia's President Vladimir Putin had hoped for a Bush victory. In the current political context of "managed democracy" (a by-word for authoritarianism), Putin's personal leanings quickly ricochet down the pipeline. Meanwhile, on news of U.S. election results, prices for benchmark West Texas Intermediate at the New York Mercantile Exchange climbed back above $50 per barrel.

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[Dogmudgeon]

1. "And with that single action, did the Oil Wars begin."

--bkl