World's Energy

Mar. 25, 2008 - Kommersant - Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki stating that Russian companies are prepared to take part in the restoration and modernization of Iraq, especially in the fields of electricity and oil, where Russian companies have extensive experience. Among the more promising possibilities are contracts to develop a second line at the West Qurna oil deposit and to reconstruct the Kurkuk-Banias oil pipeline. “I am counting on the readiness of Russian business to develop cooperation receiving adequate support from the Iraqi leadership,” Putin writes. He added that Russia is interested in developing relations with Iraq in all fields. “The documents signed at the session of the Russian-Iraqi commission on trade, economic and scientific cooperation and the intergovernmental agreement on settling the Iraqi debt to Russia on credits provided earlier are, in our view, a good basis for intensification of partnership relations,” the Russian president states in the letter. The letter was given to the Iraqi prime minister by the special representative of the Russian president in the Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov.