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 Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel

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Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel Vide
PostSubject: Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel   Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel Icon_minitimeThu May 01, 2008 8:16 am

Iran has presented representatives of natural gas-exporting countries with proposals aimed at turning an existing informal forum into an OPEC-like structure. It dismissed U.S. objections to the plan as politically motivated.

The proposals were put forward at meetings in Tehran this week involving energy officials and exports from several key gas-exporting counties, including Russia, Algeria and Qatar. The countries met under the umbrella of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), a loose structure with no formal membership that was launched in Tehran in 2001.

About 15 gas-producing nations, collectively controlling almost three-quarters of the world's gas reserves and about 40 percent of gas production, have taken part in GECF meetings since then.

Iranian officials said the suggestions for a more formal structure would be discussed when the GECF holds an annual ministerial meeting in Moscow in June.

The official IRNA news agency reported that a draft "charter" for the envisaged gas body presented this week was drawn up along the lines of OPEC regulations.

The head of the Iranian delegation to the talks, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili -- who is also Iran's OPEC governor -- said the proposals included the establishment of a secretariat, likely to be based in Geneva or Vienna. OPEC has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965.

Russia, which has the world's largest natural gas reserves, first raised the "gas OPEC" idea in 2002, but since then it has displayed ambivalence, calling the idea "interesting" but also denying plans for a gas cartel.

While Iran, with the world's second-largest reserves, is taking the initiative, Russian media report that Moscow is promoting proposals of its own that differ somewhat from Iran's.

Both the United State and the European Union in the past have voiced opposition to the idea of a gas exporters' cartel that could manipulate or fix prices, and threaten security of supplies.

Tehran this week shrugged off the objections.

Deputy Oil Minister Ali Kordan, in an interview with Iran's Petroenergy Information Network, linked to the Ministry of Petroleum Web site, said U.S. opposition was "political" in nature.

Iran did not plan to use its economic resources as a weapon against mankind but to help the world, he said.

In its reports on the envisaged new organization, the Petroenergy Information Network uses the acronym OGEC.

Unlike the E.U., which already gets between one-quarter and half of its gas from Russia (with Algeria and Norway its other major suppliers), the U.S. is currently largely self-sufficient, but its gas usage is expected to grow significantly in the near future, with imports projected to rapidly increase.

The most outspoken opponent of a "gas OPEC" in the U.S. Congress has been Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

A year ago, she wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging the administration to "make every effort to prevent this politically driven threat to the world's energy supply from being created."

Ros-Lehtinen cited Russia's use of its energy supplies to put political pressure on its Westward-looking former allies like Ukraine and Georgia, as well as Iran's stated interest in using the planned organization for political purposes - a stance enthusiastically backed by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, another nation with gas reserves that would be likely to join.

Last July, the House unanimously passed a "sense of Congress" resolution, authored by Ros-Lehtinen, urging the U.S. and its allies to prevent the establishment of a natural gas cartel, which it said would be a threat to U.S. and world security.

With this week's developments in Tehran, Ros-Lehtinen issued a new statement Wednesday reiterating her concerns.

She said America should enlist the help of friendly nations that export oil to stop "this menace before it becomes a reality that, once established, may be with us forever."

Qatar could be key to the process. The small Gulf state is both friendly to the U.S. and a major natural gas player, with the world's third-largest reserves.

Speaking in Davos last January, Qatari Energy Minister Abdallah al-Attiyah cautioned that forming a gas cartel would not be a simple matter, because of the different ways that gas markets work.

Industry analysts note that, unlike oil that can be stockpiled, is shipped around the world by tanker, and can be rerouted easily, natural gas flows by direct pipeline between suppliers and specific consumer countries, and storage is difficult and expensive. (Liquefied natural gas is an exception as it can be stored and is transported by sea-going carrier. Still relatively small, global consumption of LNG is set to rise significantly in the coming years.)

Unlike the oil market, where cuts in output affect prices immediately, pricing for natural gas has usually been locked in in long-term contracts between buyers and sellers.

In her statement Wednesday, Ros-Lehtinen also said the U.S. should work with its allies to diversify natural gas sources and increase access to international markets through the construction of new pipelines.

LNK
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Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel Vide
PostSubject: Re: Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel   Iran Presses Ahead With Proposed Natural Gas Cartel Icon_minitimeThu May 01, 2008 8:21 am

Quote :
The most outspoken opponent of a "gas OPEC" in the U.S. Congress has been Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

A year ago, she wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging the administration to "make every effort to prevent this politically driven threat to the world's energy supply from being created."

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a disgusting, hypocritical, evil statist cunt!
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