Today, 'OPEC gas' was born?

Today, in Doha (Qatar) opens the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries (GECF). Founded in 2001 in Tehran (Iran), this forum has so far been unknown. But this situation has changed, with the public opinion about the possibility of an 'OPEC gas'.

The forum has 14 countries rich in gas resources, including major partners such as Russia, Iran, Qatar, Algeria, Indonesia (controlling 70% of world gas reserves, according to Kommersant newspaper).

The first person in the world to publicly ' fire artillery ' on the establishment of a gas cartel is the Iranian patriarch Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the occasion of visiting Iran by Russian Security Council president Igor Ivanov. In 2006. At a press conference in Qatar in February after that, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Qatar emirate Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani that this was an "interesting offer ".

Viktor Khristenk, Russian Minister of Industry and Energy (Photo: AFP)

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika also said he supported the organization. Trinidad & Tobago - a small Caribbean nation but a member of the forum - also said it would participate in negotiations on the establishment of cartels. Venezuela is an active supporter of the idea, even at the forefront of establishing a South American regional cartel earlier this year, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina.

It is because of this ' obsession with OPEC ' that soon after Gazprom and Algerian State Company signed a memorandum on cooperation, the European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs at the end of March 2006 warned exporters. If they think about establishing gas, they will call for the development of alternative energy sources, including nuclear energy and clean coal technology. Republican MP Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives on April 2 also wrote a letter calling on US Secretary of State C. Rice to oppose the establishment of this global organization.

So far, European experts believe that statements about the establishment of ' OPEC gas ' appear to be ' acting ' rather than substantive, aiming to intimidate Europe. It's not that they don't make sense: gas contracts are usually long-term, so they can't change prices abruptly like crude oil. Gas pipelines are still very fragmented, limiting the ability of exporters to distribute. On the other hand, members of the future gas cartel have very different interests.

Qatar does not support the publicity against the US, while the Algerian press remains skeptical of relations between Algeria and Russia. Iran, the most powerful country, but for many reasons (increasing domestic demand, weak infrastructure, and embargo) is actually a natural gas importer and Venezuela will share the same fate after a few Another year.

Yesterday the Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko confirmed just before the meeting that 'an OPEC gas will not be established in Doha' . Forbes also said that the meeting today mainly discussed cooperation between natural gas exporting countries, although the author Brian Wingfield emphasized: 'But like OPEC in 1960, who knows the cooperation. what will be after ten years .?

What people fear most about an ' OPEC gas ' is the phrase ' OPEC '.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was established in 1960. Over the next ten years, OPEC is still just an empty mechanism like the current GECF.Then in 1973, when the Arab-Israeli war broke out and OPEC members took this opportunity to reduce oil production, inciting a major energy crisis, only in half a year did the oil price rise from $ 2 to $ 12. USD!

NG.THANH