Leaders of the world's biggest gas suppliers ended their first summit yesterday by reiterating the need for a fair gas price while Iran, whose president was absent, warned that Western taxation will derail the energy market.
The 12-member Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) expressed in a declaration they issued after the one-day summit "the need to reach a fair price for natural gas based on gas to oil ... prices indexation. The declaration said the fair price is necessary to achieve convergence between prices of crude oil and natural gas and end disparities.
The declaration said GECF members "recognise the importance of long-term gas contracts to achieve a balanced risk sharing mechanism between producers and consumers." GECF, whose members hold just under 70 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, also called for enhancing cooperation between member states and with consumers, especially in the field of technology.
Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani opened the summit by complaining about disparities between oil and gas prices despite the rise in gas consumption in recent years. "It is illogical that discrepancies between oil prices and gas prices increase in favour of the first," said Sheikh Hamad, who added that he does not call for controlling production to influence prices.
