Russia Bargains for Bigger Stake in West's Energy

New York Times

"Russia Bargains for Bigger Stake in West's Energy
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, June 11 — Russian, American, European and Japanese officials are negotiating over whether Russia should be allowed greater latitude to invest in utilities, pipelines, natural gas facilities and other infrastructure in the United States and Europe.

In a draft declaration for endorsement at a Group of 8 summit meeting next month in St. Petersburg, Russia, broadened Russian access is paired with something the West wants: endorsement of market principles and greater access for foreign investment in the energy industry of Russia, one of the biggest oil and natural gas producers in the world.

Russian investment in Western energy facilities has been relatively modest, like Lukoil's investment in a chain of 2,000 filling stations in the United States. But earlier this year, when Gazprom, the giant Russian natural gas monopoly, expressed an interest in buying Britain's largest distributor of natural gas, it raised a furor in Britain similar to reactions in the United States to a Chinese bid for Unocal and a Dubai company's arrangement to control operations at several American ports."