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Gas Exporter Grp To Formalize Structure By End '08

Gas Exporter Grp To Formalize Structure By End 08
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Πεμ, 31 Ιανουαρίου 2008 - 06:40
A club involving the world's major gas exporting countries will formalize its structure and leadership by the end of this year, but won't be similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, an official familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
A club involving the world's major gas exporting countries will formalize its structure and leadership by the end of this year, but won't be similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, an official familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

"We hope to see a secretary general for the new forum chosen by the end of this year, or early next year," said the official, who didn't want to be named.

Members will also decide "where the headquarters of the new forum will be, how many employees should it have, what are the authorities of its secretary general, what are the criteria to choose him and what kind of studies should the new forum conduct," the official said.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, or GECF, was seen as little more than an ineffectual talking shop until Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposed a year ago his country use it to control, with Russia and Qatar, the price of natural gas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the idea was interesting and merited further study. Russia, Iran and Qatar are the world's top three gas resource holders.

The official said the new forum won't resemble OPEC.

"People are speculating about an OPEC-like gas group, but that's not the case," he said. "Its different to OPEC, it won't set a quota of production for each country.

"It will be aimed at presenting member countries with a place to meet, exchange expertise, talk about their production levels, world gas demand, latest technologies," he said.

The major decision to emerge from the last GECF meeting in Doha in April 2007 was a review the way natural gas is priced around the globe, spearheaded by Russia and Algeria. The group said it would study alternatives to the oil-indexed pricing on which the bulk of the world's natural gas is currently traded - seen by some as a necessary first step to establishing price-setting.

The official said the forum "will conduct studies on price models...but we haven't yet reached this point of discussion."

A high level committee has been studying constitutional steps to institutionalize the GECF for the past year, the official said. Ministers from member countries will decide on the structure at June meeting of the forum in Russia, he said.

Founded in 2001, the GECF is an informal organization of 15 countries. It includes Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria, which together control 72% of world gas reserves and 42% of production.

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