Putin says gas producers' OPEC 'interesting idea' UPDATE

Putin says gas producers' OPEC 'interesting idea' UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:34 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updating with quotes, background)

MOSCOW (AFX) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said that forming a natural gas equivalent of the oil producers' cartel OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) with Iran and possibly other countries was 'an interesting idea.'

'A gas OPEC is an interesting idea. We are going to think about it,' Putin said.

'At the first stage we are in agreement with Iranian specialists, with Iranian partners, with several other countries that extract and deliver hydrocarbons to the world market in large quantities, above all gas.'

Russia's massive gas resources -- nearly 30 pct of known world reserves and 20 pct of world gas production -- has raised fears in the West that it may gain further leverage over energy consumers by coordinating supplies with other gas-rich nations such as Iran and Algeria.

'We already try to coordinate our activities on the markets of these countries ... We don't want to create some kind of cartel but it would be right to coordinate our activities, bearing in mind how to solve the main problem -- secure a reliable supply of energy resources to the main consumers.'

Iran has the second-largest known gas reserves in the world, while Algeria is the second-biggest supplier of gas to Europe after Russia.

Last March, Algeria granted Gazprom and oil major Lukoil exclusive access to some of its largest oil and gas fields as part of a deal involving Algeria's purchase of 7.5 bln usd in Russian arms and a 4.7 bln usd debt write-off to Algeria.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has previously expressed support for closer coordination of gas production with Russia.

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