| Gas Exporting Countries Forum |
Article Index for Gas |
Website Links For Gas |
Information AboutGas Exporting Countries Forum |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GAS EXPORTING COUNTRIES FORUM | |
| energy policy | |
| international energy organizations | |
|
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is an organization of world's leading gas producers, which was established in Tehran in 2001 . The aims of the GECF are:
The GECF has no official statute or charter. MEMBERSHIP The forum doesn't have fixed membership structure, however Algeria , Bolivia , Brunei , Egypt , Equatorial Guinea , Indonesia , Iran , Libya , Malaysia , Nigeria , Oman , Qatar , Russia , Trinidad & Tobago , the UAE and Venezuela could be identified as current members. Turkmenistan , Bolivia , Indonesia , Libya and Oman have participated at different ministerial meetings. Norway has status of observer. MINISTERIAL MEETINGS GECF has had 6 Ministerial meetings The 6th Ministerial Meeting was scheduled to take a place in 2006 in Caracas , Venezuela, but was later postponed and changed to be met in Doha . The meeting was held on 9 April 2007 . The 7th Ministerial Meeting will take a place in Moscow in 2008 . GAS OPEC Since the establishment of the GECF in 2001, there has always been speculations, particularly in Europe, whether the world's largest producers of natural gas, in particular Russia and Iran, plan to create a gas cartel equivalent to the 2006 Iranian officials have explicitly expressed strong backing for a gas cartel and hold official talks with Russia. Russia, Iran in talks to create natural gas organization , February 2 2007: 7:22 AM EST Russia and Iran Discuss A Cartel For Natural Gas , February 2, 2007 Cartel speculation was again raised when the ministers met on April 9th, 2007.1 The 6th Ministerial Meeting of the GECF established the expert group, chaired by Russia, to study how to strengthen the GECF. The group will look at factors including pricing, infrastructure and the relationship between producers and consumers. According to the Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil , this mean that in the long term the GECF is moving towards a gas OPEC.2 However, given the insecurity of European gas supplies from Russia, Putin has no option but to downplay the prospects of such cartel at this time. The formation of a Gas OPEC is problematic for three reasons. Firstly, gas is far more widely distributed than oil. Secondly, the spot market for gas is non existent as liquefied gas cannot be stored cost-effectively and lastly gas producers cannot have surplus capacity which can be tapped on demand as some OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia have to act as a buffer to control prices. The overwhelmingly large percentage of gas is supplied via pipelines which physically lock in consumer and producer. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 26th, 2005 REFERENCES AND NOTES |
|
|