Reports from Nigeria`s Niger Delta said a gunman in Nigeria shot at a helicopter

 travelling to an oil facility operated by

Italy's Agip in the Niger Delta on Wednesday but the aircraft landed safely, the

military said. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Nkana Efik, commander of the joint military taskforce in the

state of Bayelsa, said the helicopter was travelling to the Tebidaba oil flow

station operated by Agip when it was hit by a single shot. 

"We are trying to trace where the shot came from. We are now talking to the pilot,"

Efik told Reuters. 

Meanwhile, Russia's Gazprom has  hopes to seal  a $2.5 billion oil and gas

exploration deal with Nigeria by the end of March, establishing a 50/50 joint

venture with state oil firm NNPC. 

"We are one month away from getting a conclusion on the JV (joint venture) deal,"

Vladimir Ilyanin, Managing Director of Gazprom Nigeria,said this during the ongoing

 oil and gas conference in the Nigeria Abuja 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) said in September it had signed a

memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Russian gas export monopoly on joint

venture projects, but gave few details. 

NNPC said at the time that the deal covered petroleum and gas exploration, as well

as power. 

Nigeria has the world's seventh-largest proven gas reserves, but has been unable to

develop its gas industry to anywhere near full potential because of a lack of funds

and regulation. 

Some industry experts in Europe see Russia's deals with African OPEC members like

Nigeria as an attempt to increase control on Europe's natural gas supplies. Gazprom

already provides a quarter of Europe's gas.