Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) is optimistic talks with the Nigerian authorities will result in a deal, a Gazprom executive said Wednesday in Abuja.
"We have good signs that there will be a deal," Boris Ivanov, chief executive of Gazprom's Netherlands unit told AFP in Abuja.
Ivanov, speaking on the margins of an oil and gas conference, said it was just a question of time until a deal is concluded.
Gazprom wants a stake in Nigeria's vast gas deposits and is ready to invest in energy infrastructure to get that access, oil industry officials have said.
As Africa's largest producer of crude oil, Nigeria is trying to boost its woefully inadequate domestic energy supply. It also wants to harness the gas it currently flares while its domestic market goes short.
"We want to help the government fulfill its ambitious gas program...which means (an additional) 6,000 megawatts (of power) by the year 2009," Ivanov said.
Nigeria's junior Gas Minister Olatunde Emmanuel Odusina, attending the same conference, said discussions between the two parties are still in progress and so far nothing has been signed.
He declined to say whether, from his point of view, talks are on the right track.