KEY POINTS:
The world's largest gas exporters have ruled out launching an Opec-style cartel that would control 70 per cent of the world market, but promised "collaborated efforts" on issues such as pricing.
Energy ministers from the world's 13 largest exporters of gas met yesterday in Doha, Qatar, to discuss proposals from Iran and Venezuela to develop the Gas Exporting Countries Forum into a more formal cartel that would control production and pricing.
However, Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Qatar's Energy Minister, ruled out the creation of a cartel. "We are just here to consider our interests," he said after the meeting.
One problem preventing exporters controlling gas in the way Opec manages the international oil market is that less than a quarter of exports are moved by tankers on the high seas.
Most gas is distributed using pipelines, with both producers and customers locked into long-term contracts on prices and quantities.
Exporters such as Russia are also concerned that the launch of a gas cartel might encourage European Union member states to increase efforts to switch to alternative sources of power.
Russia, which supplies a quarter of the EU's gas needs, has said it will block the launch of a cartel.
Russia is in a particularly strong position as the Moscow-based Gazprom alone controls around 17 per cent of the world's gas.
At the weekend, Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom's deputy chief executive, said the company intended to more than quadruple its value over the next seven to 10 years, taking its market capitalisation to more than US$1 trillion ($1.37 trillion). This would make it the world's largest company.
Kate Dourian, of Platts, the energy analyst, said the exporters' talks were likely to lead to "a kind of permanent secretariat to look at relations between the gas producers themselves and to exchange technology".
- INDEPENDENT
