Putin warns of higher prices as ‘gas OPEC’ meets

RUSSIA: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that consumer countries faced higher gas prices, as a fledgling forum that has raised fears of an OPEC-style gas cartel met to coordinate policy.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) groups Russia, the world’s biggest gas producer, with other gas-rich states such as Iran and Qatar and 11 other gas-exporting countries.

In a keynote address at the forum’s meeting in Moscow, Putin said that higher costs of exploration, production and transport meant that the era of cheap gas prices was ending.

“The expenses necessary for developing fields are rising sharply, and this means that despite the current problems in finances the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is of course coming to an end,” Putin said.

Putin’s comments come amid a weeks-long standoff between Ukraine and Russia over Kiev’s debts to Russian energy giant Gazprom and the price it should pay after the New Year.

Gazprom supplies a quarter of the European Union’s gas, mostly via Ukraine.

Forum officials were at pains to emphasise that the purpose of the annual meeting was to finalise and approve a charter for the body rather than create an OPEC-style cartel to fix prices.

Moscow, Monday, AFP