BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 25. In any case, none of the Gas Exporting Countries (GECF) members have significant spare capacity to respond to market demand at short notice, Charles Ellinas, CEO of Cyprus-based energy consultancy e-CNHC told Trend.
“GECF is not coherent enough to be able to do that. Also, unlike OPEC, its objectives do not include "co-ordinating and unifying petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers." GECF was established to " to support the sovereign rights of its Member Countries over their natural gas resources and their abilities to independently plan and manage the sustainable, efficient and environmentally conscious development, use and conservation of natural gas resources." This does not include coordinating gas policies,” he explained.
Ellinas noted that the objectives of two organizations are quite different.
“GECF cannot act like OPEC. In addition, most GECF Member Countries' gas exports are tied to long term contracts with fixed pricing mechanisms linked to the oil price, limiting flexibility,” he concluded.
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