Friday, August 3, 2007

A Future Natural Gas Cartel

The April 9 meeting in Doha, Qatar, of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum attracted intense media scrutiny. Pundits speculated that the hidden agenda of the meeting, the first in two years, was to explore the possibility of developing a natural gas cartel along the lines of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Such a cartel would have immense financial and political clout in the global economy. Russian President Vladimir Putin first proposed the idea in 2002.

Last January Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei floated the concept of Iran and Russia creating a cartel. The following month, Putin and Qatari Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani agreed to discuss the idea....

From Energy Daily