Published Date: 22 October 2008
Courtesy Of The ScotsMan
WORLD gas powers Russia, Iran and Qatar moved yesterday to strengthen co-operation, and Tehran said there was consensus to set up an Opec-style group, which is likely to worry western consumer nations.
Gazprom, Russia's gas export monopoly, said the three had agreed to form a "big gas troika" that would meet regularly.
But, unlike Iran's oil minister, Gholamhossein Nozari, the Gazprom chief executive, Alexei Miller, did not refer to the establishment of a "gas Opec" after talks with Mr Nozari and Qatar's energy minister, Abdullah al-Attiyah, in Tehran.
"There is a demand to form this gas Opec," Mr Nozari told a news conference.
Europe and the US have warned that such a body could pose a danger to global energy security and create room for price manipulation.
Russia, Iran and Qatar are the first, second and third biggest holders of natural gas reserves in the world.
Gas exporters have met informally for years in a group including Venezuela, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Libya.
Iran wants to turn it into a formal body akin to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment