TEHRAN,Iran, June 24
Trend:
Iran's gas export is challenged by preventive policies to confront raw material sales, said the former secretary general of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Mohammad Hossein Adeli , Trend reports citing ILNA.
"There is no cohesive stance in terms of (Iran's) gas export , there have been strong political pressures to prevent raw sale of gas and improve gas processing domestically and export of gas products," said Adeli.
"The competition with rival countries is also another issue that affects the export market, " he said.
"Iran is the third biggest gas producer in the world, but in terms of export rank, it is low because it consumes all the production domestically," Adeli added.
"Russia is very sensitive towards Iran's destination markets for gas export, and as the biggest gas exporting country in the world, these markets are important for this country. The geopolitical competition with the US and new development in energy markets has created a complicated situation for gas export, so naturally Russia is a rival for Iran regarding gas exports," he said.
"Global gas market wasn't very political at first, but today there's a lot of geopolitical rivalry involved. The competition between the US and Russia has intensified while the US has imposed limitations on other exporters including Qatar, Australia and consumers like Europe, China, India and South Korea," he said.
Adeli believes the GECF member countries should have a plan regarding gas exports, otherwise 'there won't be any winners'.
"Iran, Algeria, Venezuela and Nigeria can have active roles in the organization, however the policy of success would highly depend on Russia and Qatar. If these two countries follow separate policies one can not expect much from the organization," he said.