Gas OPEC future unclear as meeting postponed

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The world’s top gas exporting nations will postpone holding a high-level forum to October from June as the sides cannot agree on whether to form a body similar to the OPEC oil group, Russian officials said on Tuesday.

Russia is hosting this week a working group from gas exporting nations, which should come up with a draft charter or a code of rules for the new organisation.


The United States and the European Union have repeatedly said the creation of an OPEC-style gas group would pose a serious danger to global energy security and create room for price manipulation.

But Russia, Iran and Qatar, the world’s top three gas reserves holders, have been unable so far to agree on any principles other than confirming a preliminary decision taken in Tehran in April to postpone the ministerial level forum in Moscow to October from the earlier planned June.

“The number of problems is huge and particularly because there is no global gas market as such, so a cartel deal is simply not feasible,” said a Russian government official, involved in meeting preparations.

Reuters