Russia and Argentina will be signing an agreement on strategic nuclear cooperation during the upcoming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Latin American country, Russian Ambassador to Argentina Dmitry Feoktistov has said.
Putin will be attending the G20 Summit in Argentina November 30and December 1.
Sputnik quoted Feoktistov as saying, "One of the documents that will be signed [during Putin's visit] is the agreement on strategic nuclear cooperation between Russia and Argentina. [The agreement] will cover various aspects of this cooperation, including the possible construction of a big nuclear power plant [NPP] of the Russian Generation III+ design."
The ambassador pointed out that this would be an expensive project.
"Russia is ready to propose a project on turnkey basis and to construct an NPP, provide it with maintenance services and sell electrical power to the Argentinian partners for the fixed price," Feoktistov noted.
According to the ambassador, Moscow and Buenos Aires are also discussing the construction of a smaller NPP, "maybe joint construction of a floating nuclear power plant similar to the Akademik Lomonosov plant, or selling such a plant to the Argentinian partners."
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Feoktistov added that the parties were also discussing a roadmap on the nuclear cooperation.
Russian Ambassador also said that Russia's Gazprom gas giant and Argentina's YPF energy company may sign a document on the work on a specific gas field during the upcoming visit. "[The parties are going to sign] a document between Gazprom and YPF. The process is at the final stage and, hopefully, we will manage to sign this document. This document will focus on a particular gas field, I cannot disclose all the details of the agreement" Sputnik reported.
In April, Argentine Ambassador to Russia Ricardo Ernesto Lagorio told Sputnik that Gazprom and YPF may sign an agreement on joint exploration and extraction of gas at Argentina's Estacion Fernandez Oro field in the near future.
In 2015, Gazprom and YPF signed a framework agreement on joint hydrocarbons exploration and extraction in Argentina. In April 2015, the two companies signed a memorandum of cooperation, which stipulated cooperation in the area of exploration, production, and transportation of hydrocarbons in Argentina and third countries.