'Gas OPEC' loses steam

MADRID (AFP) — The proposal for a "gas OPEC" that would group the world's biggest gas exporters as a cartel took several knocks this week at a leading energy conference as key producers backed away from the idea.

"To begin with, I think putting the word 'gas OPEC' was a mistake," Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told delegates at the World Petroleum Congress on Wednesday.

"It was not supposed to be any organisation of that sort. It was supposed to be a forum for different exporting countries to cooperate."

On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky told delegates: "We don't want to speak about a cartel organisation that would set prices with gas quotas. Absolutely not."

He said the idea was not to have a cartel like OPEC, adding "we don't talk about such a structure."

Both officials stressed that the idea was for gas ...