Russia, the world’s largest producer of natural gas, has been making moves recently with other industry leaders – Iran and Qatar – to further tighten the Gas Exporting Countries Forum’s (GECF) global control of the industry.
“Gas swaps will be the issue of discussion for the troika at the next GECF meeting,” said Mohammad-Ali Khatibi , Iran’s representative to OPEC.
Gas swaps allow for a country to provide resources to another which, in turn, supplies it to a third party.
Previously acting without a charter and fixed membership structure, the GECF was officially established this past December at the organization’s seventh ministerial meeting in Moscow, Russia.
The 15 current members of the GECF account for 77 percent of the world’s gas reserves with the big three – Russia, Qatar, and Iran – accounting for 56 percent.