In the "you've just GOT to be kidding me" department. From the BBC:
"Russia's energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria's state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture. The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria."Uh huh. "No, no, it's Frahnk-en-shteen..."
On a serious level, this all part of Russia's squeeze play on Europe, for whom Russia is the #1 source of natural gas, and Algeria is #2. Hence Russia's $7.5 billion weapons sale to Algeria in 2005, paid for via gas concessions to Gazprom. Nigeria is just one more piece of that puzzle, though the pipeline route to Europe is going to be a real problem.
But you'd think the Nigerians might have been a bit more awake at the switch when the joint venture was named. Must be an undocumented side effect of all those super-effective enlargement meds...
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