Russia intends to develop settlements in national currencies within the BRICS, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday at a meeting of energy ministers of the BRICS countries.

“One of the most significant stages of our economic and financial cooperation within BRICS was the creation of the BRICS Bank. It will help strengthening of our common interests, increasing of economic stability, unification, implementing of infrastructure projects,” Novak said.

According to him, joint energy and infrastructure projects could be financed from the bank. “Russia has already introduced the practice of settlements for energy resources in the national currency with its neighbors, and this practice will evolve. Organizing such monitoring in the framework of the BRICS is an interesting challenge, not only in terms of the energy cooperation development, but also to reduce reliance on interim currencies and means of payment for the energy,” Minister added.

As TASS reported earlier, the Russian Energy Ministry welcomes payment for oil contracts in rubles, Novak said on the sidelines of the APEC forum in Beijing.

The government and Russian energy exporters continue to explore the possibility of export settlements in rubles. Thus, Rosneft could potentially use only rubles in settlements. This issue has been actively discussed after the Head of Rosneft Igor Sechin proposed to bring to the discussion of the Presidential Commission on Energy.

BRICS bank is in the process of capital formation for almost $10 bln, Russian Energy Minister added.

“The bank should start working next year, in the near future we will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors. BRICS Bank is in the process of capital formation for almost $10 bln,” Novak said.

Source: tass.ru