Russia opposes moves to form gas exporters'' cartel
09 Apr 2007
Mumbai:
Russia''s energy minister has dumped suggestions that
gas exporters would announce a "gas OPEC"
at a meeting in Qatar next week, pledging that Russia
would never take part in such an organisation.
Fourteen of the world''s leading natural gas producers
are meeting in Doha, Qatar at the Gas Exporting Countries
Forum amid reports they have been working on an Iran-backed
plan to form a club to control prices
The idea of a "gas OPEC" has caused concern
in consuming countries, whose vulnerability to energy
suppliers is a key security issue, and the idea of a
cartel was expected to figure at the Gas Exporting Countries
Forum.
Industry experts, however, expect no great impact on
prices or production, media reports said.
Founded in 2001, GECF is an informal grouping of 15
countries that includes Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela
and Algeria, which together control 72 per cent of world
reserves and 42 per cent of production.
Until now, its activities have remained limited, and
it has not even met since 2005.
"Are we going to sign up to a (gas) price policy?
Of course not," Russia''s industry and energy minister
Viktor Khristenko told a news conference.
He said that Russia had no intention of taking part
in a gas cartel, despite President Vladimir Putin''s
suggestions earlier this year that the idea of a "gas
OPEC" should be examined.
He said the Doha meeting "is causing a lot of tension,
sometimes exaggerated, sometimes wild."
"We have not had, we have not and we will not have
such an objective of taking part in such a relationship
against anyone," he said.
But he said the meeting on Monday would be about "how
to make the functioning of the Forum more effective"
and "reinforcing cooperation" between members.
It said the natural gas exporters appear to be seeking
only cooperation amongst themselves for now. But as
was the case with OPEC when it formed in 1960, it is
unclear exactly what "cooperation" will mean
a decade or so down the road, when global energy markets
surely will have changed.
No
one is certain what the new organisation will try to
achieve.
The global market for natural gas is also too fractured
and has too many substitutes for the fuel. Also, the
two main protagonists of the cartel, Iran and Venezuela,
have little heft in the market.
