Fears over Russia move to form Opec-style gas cartel

Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko will visit Algeria this weekend, a trip that is likely to fuel European fears that Russia plans to co-opt other major gas exporters into forming an Opec-style cartel.

Energy analysts agree that European fears are overblown. “There’s an awful lot of sound and fury in consuming countries,” said Jonathan Stern, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. “There’s absolutely no substance to it.” But fears of Russia wielding its vast resources as a weapon have continued to reverberate around the continent over the past year, during which Gazprom forced Russia’s neighbours to accept higher prices for its gas and briefly cut supplies during a pricing dispute with Ukraine.
The Peninsula Qatar