<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile — Iran, Russia announce plan to set up 'Gas OPEC'
Iran, Russia announce plan to set up 'Gas OPEC'

Thursday, October 23, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

NICOSIA — Iran, Qatar and Russia said the three nations have agreed to establish a natural gas cartel.

Both Iran and Russia said a so-called gas OPEC would be established. They said Qatar has agreed to the move, but did not say when the organization would be formed. "We have made major decisions," Iran's Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said. "There is a demand to form this gas OPEC, and there is a consensus to set up gas OPEC."

Officials said the three countries -- the three leading gas producers -- have agreed to form a panel to help form the gas cartel.

Qatar, a key ally of the United States, did not immediately endorse the decision. "We have decided to be in close contact and we can say that today a major gas troika was formed," Russia's Gazprom chief executive officer Alexei Miller told a news conference on Oct. 21 in Teheran.

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