Heads of some of the world's top producers of gas have called for joint measures to uphold the fundamental role of long-term gas contracts and support gas pricing based on oil products indexation, a latest move to fend off pressure from the European Union and North America.
In his opening speech at the 2nd summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the development of the gas market had been increasing supplies on the spot market for gas.
Meanwhile, it was "not a reason to reject long-term contracts, or take-or-pay principles," Putin said.
"Our priority is to provide stable deliveries to global markets in the long-term perspective," he added
President Putin also was opposed to EU's Third Energy Package which requires the separation of
of companies' generation and sale operations from their transmission networks.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, urged the participants to further "evolve and unite."
He suggested the member countries work as OPEC rather than a loose consultative body.
The GECF groups Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, with Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway as observers.
In a declaration released on Monday, the countries said they would commit to fostering the consistent growth of natural gas usage, promoting the expansion of natural gas utilization in different sectors, and encouraging the GECF dialogue with all market players and stakeholders.
The two-day summit came as the "shale revolution" in North America had been changing the geography of gas supplies and increasing competition between gas and coal energy sources.
Meanwhile, Sergei Chizhov, head of the Russian Gas Union said, "that Russia might not follow the trend in the nearest future, but would focus on the diversification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export.
He did not rule out GECF's future expansion as new gas exporting countries were emerging. Meanwhile, he believed the organization would probably function in a consultative way rather than a cartel.
Source: Xinhua
