The two countries on Wednesday signed a raft of agreements -- key among which were those on energy -- during a historic visit to Africa's most populous nation by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Russian energy giant Gazprom International immediately unveiled plans to build a possible first Trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe, its chief Boris Ivanov said.
"If the Trans-Saharan gas project is ever realised, this will be the first trunk pipeline," Ivanov told reporters.
"The company has essentially started its work," he said, adding that those in at the start of such projects become "king."
The agreement signed between Gazprom International and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) "established a 50/50 joint venture which will pursue joint projects in oil, gas, gas processing and transportation, among other things," he said.
Medvedev, who was greeted with a machine-gun salute at President Umaru Yar'Adua's palm-lined villa in Abuja, expressed his hope that the deal will lead to opportunities for joint projects in energy processing and transportation.
