December 24, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 25, 1429

MOSCOW, Dec 23: Gas exporting states on Tuesday finalised the creation of a new Qatar-based forum aimed at coordinating gas policy that consumer countries fear could become the gas equivalent of oil cartel Opec.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned at the meeting of ministers from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Moscow that the “era of cheap gas” was over and that consumers would face higher prices in the future.

“A new organisation has been born today.... The charter has been agreed. The headquarters will be in Qatar,” Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said after the meeting.

The forum groups Russia, the world’s biggest gas producer, with other gas-rich states such as Iran and Qatar and a dozen other gas-exporting countries.

The GECF had been dreamt up at a meeting in Tehran in 2001 and ministers have met annually since then. But this was the first time the organisation’s basic rules have been agreed and a headquarters established.

The Qatari capital Doha beat off competition from Putin’s home city of Saint Petersburg and Tehran to host the headquarters.

Forum officials were at pains to emphasise that the purpose of the meeting was to approve the charter rather than create an Opec-style cartel to fix prices.

“We would like to again stress there is no need to directly associate the newly created organisation with Opec,” said Shmatko.

“Therefore we will certainly not be discussing today the need to agree on levels of gas production. Our view is much broader.” Putin’s warning over more expensive gas came amid a weeks-long standoff between Ukraine and Russia over Kiev’s debts to Russian energy giant Gazprom and the price it should pay after the New Year.

Gazprom supplies a quarter of the European Union’s gas, mostly via Ukraine.

Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria between them control nearly two-thirds of the world’s gas reserves and account for 42 per cent of its production.—AFP