NEW YORK, Sept 26: Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday pledged to develop the transport infrastructure that would enable Russia to become a major oil exporter to the United States.

At a meeting with senior business executives at the New York Stock Exchange, the Russian leader said that his country’s booming oil output could supply 10 percent of US crude imports within five to seven years.

“According to some estimates, Russian oil supplies within the next five to seven years could account for more than 10 percent of US oil imports.

“We are thinking about this and how to develop the transport infrastructure to resolve this, and I believe it is a perfectly achievable aim,” he said.

Putin, who then headed to Camp David for a summit with his US counterpart George W. Bush, said both countries stood to gain immense benefits from their energy partnership.

“Russia gets access to a wider market and investment, and your energy market will become more stable and predictable. In today’s not very stable world, to have stable energy supplies for the economy means a lot,” he said.

Russia, already the world’s second largest supplier of crude after Saudi Arabia, is hoping to attract US investors to its oil industry that would help it regain some of the market share it lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The United States, the world’s largest importer, wants to build up its purchases of Russian crude, currently insignificant, to diversify its sources of supply and reduce its dependence on the volatile Middle East.

This strategic consideration has acquired greater importance in the light of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

For the moment Russia lacks the means of shipping its exports to the United States and has none of the infrastructure needed to load supertankers.

However several projects are under consideration, including the construction of a deepwater terminal at the port Murmansk, in Russia’s far north, that would facilitate the delivery of Russian crude to the US market.

A feasibility study for a pipeline from western Siberia to Murmansk has been approved and the project could in theory come onstream by 2007.

However the Russian government will first have to make a strategic decision.

The head of Russian oil giant LUKoil, which has expressed a keen interest in the US market and been a driving force behind the Murmansk project, criticized Moscow for dragging its feet.

Private Russian oil companies who initiated the scheme did not object if the state pipeline monopoly Transneft took control but wanted quick implementation, Vagit Alekperov told reporters.—AFP