MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. Russia scaled up supplies of petroleum products to African countries by 3.5 times to 17.6 mln metric tons last year, department director of the Energy Ministry Dmitry Semenov said.

"Dynamics is good for supplies - we had the increase by 3.5 times to 17.6 mln metric tons last year as regards petroleum products. Certainly, the low benchmarking base has its effect there to a certain extent but the contribution is also made here nevertheless to solve tasks of reorienting our energy exports," the official said.

Russia and African nations are now discussing about forty potential joint projects in the energy sphere, Semenov noted. "We have promising projects in the energy sphere identified and this number has even slightly increased from the time of the Russia - Africa summit. We had about thirty at that time; now we are close to forty. Fourteen countries being the first priority ones for us were determined. Our companies are widely presented in the continent: these are projects in the energy sphere, production and transportation," he added.

Russia is working now on expansion of natural gas use in the energy sector of African countries and natural gas vehicle fuel use, Semenov said.