Russia, Iran, Venezuela, others to form Natural Gas cartel??

[MattSh]

In America's Sights

// US Congress Targets Russia in Speaking Out Against Gas OPEC

The annual meeting of gas-exporting countries (GECF) in Doha, Qatar, on April 9 could poison relations between Russia and the United States. Kommersant has learned that the US House of Representatives has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to inform the Russian government that its participation in the creation of a cartel will be looked upon by Congress as an unfriendly step and that the so-called gas OPEC itself is a "global organization of extortion and racketeering."

A week before the GECF meeting in Doha, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Ranking Member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the creation of a gas OPEC. In the letter, Representative Ros-Lehtinen requested that Secretary Rice "energetically oppose the creation of a global organization of extortion and racketeering, which will present a fundamental and long-term threat to world energy supplies."

From..... http://www.kommersant.com/p755755/r_528/gas_OPEC_Russia_US/

AND.....

Qatarrh of Gas Ways

// Russia wants to create a ‘gas OPEC’ unofficially

One day before the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) opens in Qatar’s capital, it remains uncertain whether a gas cartel equivalent to the OPEC will be created or not. Russia’s Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko is flying to Doha so as to demonstratively refrain from signing any documents providing a legal basis for the cartel’s creation. Gazprom’s mission in Qatar is directly opposite. Gazprom is responsible for the political part of the talks with the countries which have projects for building liquefied gas factories, for even rumors about a ‘gas OPEC’ improve the positions of all national gas companies in those projects.

Qatar’s capital Doha will host the two-day conference of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) on the level of ministers, beginning on Monday. Chief participants of the upcoming event from 14 GECF member states (Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago, the UAE, Venezuela) and 2 observer states (Equatorial Guinea, Norway) arrived to Doha on Sunday. The forum’s main events will take place in Doha on Monday, in Ritz-Carlton hotel. The second day of the conference contains almost no events. The forum’s larger part will be closed. Three speeches will be given publicly: Qatar’s emir will begin, Trinidad & Tobago’s Energy Ministry’s spokesman will follow, and Qatar’s Energy Ministry’s spokesman will be next. Monday will make it clear whether the events in Doha can be seen as the creation of a ‘gas OPEC’, a cartel of the world's largest producers of natural gas for setting prices.

From..... http://www.kommersant.com/p757118/Doha_forum/

[Peace Patriot]

1. You gotta love the Bush Junta's mind-boggling hypocrisy in opposing cartels.

Not.

[NormanYorkstein]

2. That and the "Bank of the South"

are going to change the balance of power in some very interesting ways.