Kremlin pushes for gas cartel
The Kremlin demonstrated this week that its version of an international gas cartel is well on the way to formation, despite public denials that the 15-member Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), meeting in Doha yesterday, agreed to form a price and supply fixing regime comparable to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). Represented by energy minister Victor Khristenko and Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller, the Russian delegation pushed through an agreement to create a study group for evaluating gas pricing mechanisms currently in use, with the objective of devising a single standard, delinked from crude oil and incorporating the different forms in which gas is traded in the market. The new group is to meet at least six times this year. According to leading Russian energy analyst, Igor Tomberg, within the forum Russia was allied with Algeria and Qatar, and avoided what Tomberg called "unnecessary political game-playing".