Officials pushing for natural-gas alliance

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

MOSCOW -- Russian officials are pushing for the formation of a "natural gas OPEC" that would link Moscow with major suppliers in Central Asia and Iran to gain more clout against customers in the West.

If successful, the alliance would control more than half of the world's known gas reserves and give Moscow powerful leverage as it seeks to strike a new long-term deal on energy with the European Union.

Valery Yazev, president of Russia's Gas Society and chief parliamentary lobbyist for the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, told the Itar-Tass news agency this week that former Soviet states such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Belarus could become part of the new alliance, with Iran a candidate for membership down the road.

"If problems surrounding Iran's nuclear program are removed, I would like to see Iran in this alliance, too," Mr. Yazev said.

The working name for the proposed cartel is IANNGO -- the International Alliance of National Non-Governmental Organizations of gas producing and transporting countries.

Russia's willingness to use its vast oil and gas resources to further political ends was on display again yesterday, when Gazprom officials announced plans to more than double the price of gas supplied to Georgia, which has infuriated its larger neighbor with an openly pro-Western and pro-U.S. foreign policy.

Already poor Russian-Georgian relations plummeted in recent weeks after Moscow's harsh reaction to the arrest in Tbilisi of four Russian officers on spying charges.

Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili, visiting Moscow when the price increase was announced, said politics clearly played a role in Gazprom's move.

"Russia has not only used energy for political purposes with Georgia," he said in an interview on Russian radio. "It is its trump card, which it has played on a global scale."

Russian officials defended the abrupt price increase, saying Georgia and other former Soviet countries have been enjoying Soviet-era subsidies on their fuel shipment and should now pay market prices.