The world’s leading gas exporting nations have agreed in Qatar to set up a high-level group to look into gas pricing in the first step towards the creation of a gas Opec.

The group, which includes Algeria, Iran, Nigeria, Russia and Qatar, sought to assuage mounting fears among gas consumers that the creation of a gas cartel was imminent, but it confirmed that the group’s intention was to strengthen cooperation.

“In the long term we are moving towards a gas Opec,”, Chakib Khelil, the Algerian Energy and Mines Minister, said. “It will take a long time.”

He said that pricing was the most important issue facing exporters. “The price of gas does not reflect its real value,” Mr Khelil said. However, he said that a gas Opec needed a liquid market for gas, which did not exist yet.

The study group, established by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, will look into pricing, infrastructure and “cooperation to stabilise the market”. It will report back to the forum’s next ministerial meeting, to be held in Moscow in 2008.

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