Russia and Libya: tiptoeing to a Gas Cartel?

Since Thursday 31^st Libya and Russia are finalizing their cooperation: Libya as major gas and oil producer, Russia as the problem-free dream-investor. Taking into account agreements with Algeria, resources deals from Maghreb to Mashreq of former Soviet allies follow an interesting script: oil for debt-scrap & weapons.

Moscow cancelled the debt Libya had (up to $4.5 billion), “in exchange for multibillion dollar contracts for Russian companies" after Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. For the contents of the agreements I rely on Dr. Ariel Cohen findings, namely “$3.5 billion for the state monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) to build a 500 kilometer rail line in Libya between the cities of Sirte and Benghazi, (admittedly) [...]$2 billion to $4 billion Russian deal to sell the Libyans modern arms [...]12 of the latest Su-35 multirole fighters (or Su-30MK2 according to other reports); a dozen MiG-29 SMT fighters; S-300 PMU-2 long-range surface-to-air missiles, Tor-M2E short-range SAM systems, military helicopters, submarines, warships, and army equipment.”

Securing a partnership with EU suppliers of gas and oil will unfortunately mine any energy diversification policy Brussels may consider. Talks of a Gas cartel are re-iterated, and look now more likely: Russia has been benefitting from Algeria´s expertise in LNG technology since their agreements in 2006. Moreover the deal with Algeria and recent visit to Nigeria put Gazprom closer to have a stake on the NIGAL pipeline (a.k.a. Trans-Saharan gas pipeline) or finance it.