MOSCOW: Russia’s energy minister yesterday poured scorn on suggestions that gas exporters would announce a “gas Opec” at a meeting in Doha next week, pledging that Russia would never take part in such an organisation.
Leading producers are to meet in Doha on Monday at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum amid reports they have been working on an Iran-backed plan to form a club to control prices.
“Are we going to sign up to a (gas) price policy? Of course not,” Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko told a news conference.
He said Russia had no intention of taking part in a “gas cartel”, despite suggestions earlier this year from Russian President Vladimir Putin that the idea of a “gas Opec” should be examined.
“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.
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.
Those suggestions have angered many European nations, which last year suffered from Russian gas supply cuts during Moscow’s pricing dispute with Ukraine, that came during one of the coldest winters on record.
Founded in 2001, GECF is an informal organisation grouping 15 countries. It includes Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria, which together control 72% of world reserves and 42% of production.
Until now, its activities have remain limited, and it has not even met since 2005.
Khristenko conceded that the Doha meeting “is causing a lot of tension, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes wild.”
But he said the meeting on Monday would be about “how to make the functioning of the Forum more effective” and “reinforcing co-operation” between members.
“For Russia, it is very important to use this possibility to put in place a global energy dialogue,” he said.
The 12-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) proposed as the model for the gas producers was formed in 1960 and is the supplier of more than a third of world oil.
It controls oil prices by adjusting the output of its members, using a production quota system that limits supply to the market.
With the exception of Russia, most of the leading gas producers are Opec members, such as Algeria, Iran, Qatar and Venezuela.
But analysts say that the creation of a “gas Opec” would be extremely difficult because gas is sold in long-term supply contracts often stretching over 20 years and transportation of the commodity is difficult. “The gas market is quite different to the oil market,” reassured Claude Mandil, the head of the International Energy Agency, an energy watchdog for rich countries, on Thursday.
“I don’t see how it could be possible to transpose to the gas market the mechanism that Opec has achieved in the oil market, so I am not very concerned,” he added.
Putin said in February that forming a natural gas equivalent of Opec with Iran and other countries was “an interesting idea.”
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais on Monday as saying the creation of such a cartel was not imminent.
“We talk about this, and amongst gas producing countries the desire exists for it, but I believe we will not arrive at the creation of a gas Opec for the moment,” he said. – AFP |
