NATO wary of Russian-led 'OPEC for gas' (11/19/06)

NATO wary of Russian-led 'OPEC for gas'

RFE/RL Newsline

LONDON - Britain's Financial Times reported on November 14 that a recent confidential NATO study warns "the military alliance that it needs to guard against any attempt by Russia to set up an 'OPEC for gas' that would strengthen Moscow's leverage over Europe."

The NATO economic experts suggested that "Russia may be seeking to build a gas cartel including Algeria, Qatar, Libya, the countries of Central Asia and perhaps Iran." The study noted that Russia wants to use energy policy for "political ends," as it has recently toward Ukraine and Georgia.

On November 13 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow that "only a madman could think that Russia would start to blackmail Europe using gas, because we depend to the same extent on European customers" as they do on their Russian suppliers. He added that there is "no substance at all" to the idea that Russia wants to form a gas cartel.

On October 31, the Moscow daily Kommersant reported that Valery Yazev, who heads the State Duma's Energy, Transport and Communications Committee, told the board of the Russian Gas Association on October 30 that producers and transporters in CIS countries should form an International Alliance of National Non-Profit Gas Organizations.

Mr. Yazev, whom the daily described as "Gazprom's chief lobbyist in the State Duma ... [and] unofficial mouthpiece of the Russian authorities," suggested that President Vladimir Putin first came up with the idea but placed it "on the back burner" at the time of the July summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries that met in St. Petersburg.

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