Here’s an interesting comment by blogger Tim Newman that I found over at SRB, which in a way backs up Robert Amsterdam’s arguments about “premature contractualization” with regard to the Gazprom-Nigeria deal rumors…

“I’d be interested to see how Gazprom go about developing the Nigerian reserves, given that their progress in developing their Russian reserves has advanced practically nowhere beyond announcing grand projects, promising funding, and using the force of the state to appropriate others’ projects. I have had a meeting or two with Gazprom at the middle-management level, and it is clear that there is a rather large gap between the announcements the senior managers and politicians as to what Gazprom will do, and the managers and engineers who are tasked with making it happen.