The Null Device

Now with attitude

Unfortunately chosen brand name of the moment: Russian gas company Gazprom has recently launched a joint venture with the Nigerian gas firm NNPC. Unfortunately, the name they chose for their joint venture is Nigaz. Word.

I wonder whether the problem was caused by some Russian executive being unaware of pejorative words in English, or whether the name was deliberately chosen so that they can have a totally wicked gangsta-rap company anthem.

There are 4 comments on "Now with attitude":

Posted by: dj Thu Jul 2 04:27:55 2009

It's pretty hard to get any more gangsta than a Russian energy company.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org/acb/ Thu Jul 2 11:09:38 2009

True.

Posted by: Greg Fri Jul 3 14:28:30 2009

Google reports there's a company in India called Wigaz.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org/acb/ Fri Jul 3 23:29:41 2009

And apparently a Turkish gas company one-ups this by being named Niǧgaz. Perhaps they got their name before NWA and their peers popularised that variant spelling.

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