Ministers of International Energy Agency member states warned major natural gas producers such as Russia and Iran on Tuesday against disrupting energy markets with production-adjusting actions based on nationalism and using their rich resources as leverage over others, IEA officials said.
During the two-day meeting of the Paris-based 26-member body, the ministers called on the producers not to create an international production-adjusting body
with a structure similar to that of the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries.
"If energy-producing countries strengthen state control (on production) in an excessive manner, that may cause a slowdown in foreign investment" in those countries, Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Katsuhito Asano said at the meeting, according to a Japanese official who was present at the forum.
The ministers' critical views on what analysts call "natural resources nationalism" found their expression in a communique adopted by the body's Governing Body, the IEA officials said.
The communique read, "We call on the IEA to advise on emergency response mechanisms and policies for gas markets, and their potential international implications, as we have seen an increase in supply tensions and evidence of a lack of transparency."
It demanded "more transparent, stable and predictable regulatory frameworks to boost investment as well as better data for timely investment."
The communique also noted, "Energy prices remain high and volatile and a particularly heavy burden for the economies of less-developed countries."
"We stand ready to respond to any further disruption," it said, adding, "We commit to sharpening and strengthening our emergency response mechanisms" to counteract supply disruptions.
The IEA ministers also agreed to try to limit emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to block further progress in global warming by setting energy-saving goals for each of various industrial sectors.
The setting of goals was proposed by Japan during the conference, which wrapped up on Tuesday.
Japan is hoping to lead the world community's energy-saving efforts in light of the upcoming summit in 2008 of the Group of Eight major powers in the town of Toyako, Hokkaido, where the fight to limit global warming is expected to be one of the major themes, according to Japanese officials at the Paris parley.
The IEA ministers urged the IEA secretariat to get member and non-member governments to devise energy-saving goals and action plans.
In doing so, it called on the secretariat to promote the use of "sector-specific benchmarking tools" to expedite energy-saving across the globe.
The officials said the IEA wants non-member countries whose energy consumption is disproportionately high in relation to the size of their gross domestic products such as China and India to cooperate in pushing energy conservation.
(Kyodo News, 15/05/2007)