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Gazprom official casts doubt on idea of 'gas OPEC' to set prices
Platts
Brussels
Petroleumworld.com 02 23 06
Russia's Gazprom Wednesday said it would be hard to see how gas producing
countries could influence market prices in the way OPEC does in oil, although
there is room for more cooperation."It's a bit of an artificial question whether it's possible to have the
same kind of organization as OPEC, because OPEC is based on production quotas
to support prices...but gas prices are based on long term contracts [indexed
to oil prices]," Gazprom's deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev told reporters in
Brussels by video link from Moscow."It's very difficult to imagine that it's possible to find a price
mechanism by which gas producers could arrange a simultaneous price," he said.
The oil and gas industries are not comparable, Medvedev said, with fixed
infrastructure such as pipeline networks, storage and regasification terminals
playing a much larger role in gas.But Medvedev said he saw no reason why gas producers should not be
allowed to discuss and coordinate their activities in the world market. "There
are a lot of topics which could be discussed...from upstream to downstream,"
he said.And he dismissed fears that such coordination could be a threat "to the
European or any other market."The European Union has made diversifying its gas supplies a key policy
aim as its import dependency continues to rise. About half of its gas imports
come from Russia, with Algeria and Norway its two other main suppliers.The idea of setting up some form of gas producers' cartel, or 'gas OPEC',
has been discussed by Russian and Iranian government officials this year with
varying degrees of enthusiasm. Algeria and Qatar have been cooler on the idea.A meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which was set up several
years ago but which has not looked to coordinate gas production, is expected
to take place in Doha, Qatar, in April.For more news, request a free trial to Platts European Natural Gas Report at
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Platts 22 GMT 02 07
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