Japan, a major energy importer, voiced opposition yesterday to a gas cartel as the world's leading gas producers tried to enhance cooperation.
"If I'm asked whether we had better create one or not, I would say it's not desirable," Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari said of proposals for a "gas OPEC."
"It trades in each market under free-trade circumstances. It is different from oil," Amari told reporters without elaborating.
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which together holds more than 70 percent of natural gas reserves, agreed on Monday to look at enhancing cooperation and to discuss the cartel proposal.
But Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said he believed the establishment of a gas cartel was not technically viable for at least 10 to 15 years.
The forum, founded in 2001, groups 15 of the world's gas-rich nations, including Russia, Iran, Qatar and Algeria.
The idea of creating gas producers' equivalent of the OPEC gained momentum last August when Europe's two main natural gas suppliers -- Gazprom of Russia and Algeria's Sonatrach -- signed a partnership accord.
Japan, the second-largest economy in the world, is dependent on imports for nearly all of its oil and gas supply.
Europe and the US have expressed worries that the gas exporters seek to establish a cartel along the lines of OPEC that would control production levels and pricing.
Faced with the concerns, leading producers Iran and Russia have backed off talk of doing so at Monday's gathering in Doha of the 16-member Gas Producing Countries Forum.
But Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said on Monday the forum would create a group to look into pricing.
"Russia is ready to be the one that will carry out research into the problem of price formation for gas," Khristenko said, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.
He did not say how such a group's operations would differ from those of a cartel, but Jonathan Stern, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said Russia was genuinely interested in reviewing the way gas prices are calculated, rather than creating a formal price-fixing cartel.
"It makes sense for gas exporters to re-examine why the price of gas is linked to oil prices," Stern said.
Gas prices in long-term European contracts are tied to oil prices.
Earlier on Monday, energy ministers from Iran and Qatar denied that the talks were aimed at creating a gas cartel modeled on the OPEC oil exporters' group.
Iran's Minister of Petroleum Seyed Hamaneh and his Qatari counterpart, Abdullah al-Attiyah, said discussions aimed to create a stable world market for the fuel.
"I hate the name cartel. We are not a cartel," al-Attiyah told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting's opening ceremony. "We're just here to consider our interests."
Many experts say a natural gas cartel that resembles the OPEC group would be tough to achieve.
Unlike oil, which is traded on an exchange that constantly updates the market price based on supply and demand, most gas is sold under tight contracts that allow buyers to lock in prices for up to 25 years.
The formation of a gas exchange also would be difficult because most natural gas is delivered via pipelines and is not as easily shipped around the world to different buyers as oil. Pipeline infrastructure also requires significant investment that often makes long term contracts necessary.
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