Putin, Prodi agree to open markets for Russian, Italian firms

Putin, Prodi agree to open markets for Russian, Italian firms

Moscow (Platts)--21Jun2006

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and Italy's prime minister, Romano
Prodi, have agreed to open their respective energy markets to each other's
companies, the Kremlin press service said late Tuesday following the meeting
of the two leaders in Moscow.
"Our bilateral relations have already reached a new phase in the energy
sector. Our relations are no longer those between a seller and a client,"
Prodi was quoted as saying.
Italy is already present in the Russian electricity production market and
we will soon see a Russian presence in the Italian market, Prodi said.
"It was extremely important for us to hear the prime minister's opinion
on allowing Russian companies to enter the Italian energy market in exchange
for our readiness to allow Italian producers to extract oil and gas on the
territory of the Russian Federation," said Putin.
Similar cooperation is in progress with Germany's BASF, he said. "In
fact, we are implementing the provisions of the Energy Charter's supplementary
protocol without formally ratifying this document by the parliament," he
added.
Putin said that Russia was ready for energy cooperation of the BASF kind
"only with those partners who meet us halfway and ready for cooperation based
on equal rights."

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