Iran, Qatar, Russia Form Gas Alliance

Iran, Qatar and Russia have agreed to form an OPEC-style organization for gas-exporting countries, Iran's oil minister said Tuesday after a trilateral meeting in Tehran.
The move will give Russia a greater say in international sales of natural gas and comes on the same day that OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri arrived in Moscow to meet government officials.
Observers are watching those talks closely for signs of exactly what Russia wants from closer ties with the cartel, although there is no suggestion at this stage that Moscow is seeking full membership or would participate in an expected supply cut to be discussed Friday.
"The meetings went well and big decisions were made, and the groundwork was laid for the creation of a technical committee," Iran's oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said after Tuesday's meeting with Qatar's oil minister, Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, and the head of Russian energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller. Gas producers such as Russia, Iran, Qatar and Venezuela have been talking for some time about a "gas OPEC," mirroring the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which meet more than 40% of the world's crude oil demand.
Building a cartel to control gas prices will be difficult. Unlike the global oil market, gas markets remain fragmented and regional.
Volumes traded around the world, in the form of super-chilled liquefied natural gas, are relatively small compared with heavily traded oil markets. Most LNG is traded under long-term contracts between buyers and seller, often at prices pegged to oil. This makes it tough for a gas cartel to influence prices.