Azerbaijan, Baku/ Trend , corr. U. Ismayilova/ Ingilab Ahmadov, the Chief of the Public Finance Monitoring Centre, said today that Azerbaijan at best may keep carrying out policy as country-coordinator in the new "Gas OPEC".
According to Mr. Ahmadov, no advances in this issue have been observed yet, as it was expected earlier, as the content of the forthcoming organization is many-coloured. "There are countries, which adjusted aggressively for the purpose of regulating gas prices. There are other ones, which have significant gas reserves and have intentions to sell it," he said.
"It is too early to speak about any concrete bloc at the existing stage of the development of the situation," Mr. Ahmadov stressed.
According to the expert, based upon the fact that Azerbaijan will take active part in the world gas market from 2008, there is a possibility that some commitments might be applied to our country.
" Azerbaijan may join this organization not as a member or participant, but as a country-coordinator to facilitate agreement on certain issues," he said.
Jean-Fransua Sireli, the Head of the Gaz de France, considers the foundation of a cartel of the world's largest gas producing countries ad exemplum of OPEC is not advantageous for Europen gas consumers. Mr. Sireli provided reasons for his opinion during an interview with the LCI TV Channel, Trend reports referring to RIA "Novosti".
"If "Gas OPEC" is founded, then it will mean bad news for our gas consumers for two reasons. First, gas is a kind of energy, with peak production being attained within the next ten decades. Our needs in gas will be further increasing more and more," said Mr. Sireli.
"Secondly, Europe's dependence on gas will increase year by year, since volumes of gas production reduce," said the Head of Gaz de France.
According to Mr. Sireli, "Gas OPEC" will do its best to regulate the prices and volumes of the production, but it is not good news at all".
At the same time, according to Mr. Sireli, it is too early too speak about the foundation of a gas cartel, as during the forum of the gas exporting countries, recently held in Doha (Bahrain), "there had been controversies and difficulties emerging among their participants".
Notably, the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries was founded by Algeria, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, and Turkmenistan in 2001. Notably, the above-mentioned countries possess over 70 % of world gas reserves.