September 08, 2008

Gazprombank interested in Saudi gas projects in Red Sea

Russian energy giant Gazprom’s subsidiary Gazprombank has announced that it would definitely be interested in any Saudi initiative for exploring gas in the Red Sea.

Mr Anatoly Miliukov executive VP and head of asset management at Gazprombank said that 2 Russian investment funds in the energy and real estate sectors collectively worth USD 6 billion are targeting Saudi investors. He added that “When Saudi Arabia floats a tender for gas exploration project concerning the Red Sea, we would definitely be participating in the project. We are also studying what we can do in collaboration with Saudi Aramco.”

Mr Miliukov said that the Russia Energy Fund and the Russia Real Estate Fund were valued at USD 5 billion and USD 1 billion respectively. He added that “We worked hard to launch these 2 funds which were facilitated by the good political relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia.”

Gazprombank would explore the possibility of establishing its presence in the Kingdom where, besides the oil and gas sector, there were tremendous opportunities in the light of the economic cities and other mega projects that had been launched or are in the pipeline.