Moscow (Platts)--20Apr2009

Russia will present Monday a proposal for a new international agreement
on energy security to replace the Energy Charter Treaty, Russia's President
Dmitry Medvedev said Monday during a visit to Finland.

"Today we will hand out a framework document on international cooperation
in energy, including proposals for transit agreements, to our partners in the
G8 and G20, the CIS, and to our neighbors," Medvedev said in a joint press
conference with his Finnish counterpart Tarja Halonen, broadcast by Russian
state television.

Russia wants a new agreement to secure the interests of energy producing,
transiting and consuming countries, Medvedev said, noting that the Energy
Charter has failed to regulate some of the issues of energy security.

"We would like to start talks with our partners as soon as possible. I
hope for constructive reception of our ideas," he said.

The document will consist of three sections: principles of international
energy cooperation, a transit agreement targeting resolution of transit
conflicts, and a list of energy products, which will include oil, gas, nuclear
fuel, coal and electricity, Medvedev's aide Arkady Dvorkovich said, according
to a Prime-Tass report.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said during his visit
to Moscow in February that the EU was looking at Russian proposals for a new
international agreement on energy security.

At the peak of the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis in January, Medvedev
suggested drafting a new document to guarantee global energy security, saying
the Energy Charter had failed to become an effective mechanism. The idea was
further developed by Putin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Russia has signed the Energy Charter treaty but not ratified it, unlike
Ukraine and EU member countries.

Medvedev and Halonen also discussed the planned Nord Stream gas pipeline
which will be laid across the Baltic Sea to connect Russia with Germany.

Halonen said Finland would consider it "a good project" if the pipeline
proves to be environmentally-friendly.

"We look at this project purely from ecological point of view," he said.

Medvedev said Russia considers the project commercially attractive to
Europe and Russia that it is determined to pursue it.

--Anna Shiryaevskaya, anna_shiryaevskaya@platts.com