Era of cheap gas is over, Iran says

TEHRAN,Feb.19(MNA) - Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that the era of cheap gas is over. Realizing a fair gas price is a goal which is seriously followed up by Iran, he added. To this end, we will negotiate with all members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), the Mehr News Agency quoted Qasemi as saying. Gas should be sold at a real price, he stressed. In November 2012, Iran was named the new chair of the GECF and will host a summit in autumn 2013. Leaders of the world’s biggest gas suppliers ended their first summit in Doha, Qatar on November 13, 2012. During the gathering, they restated the need for a fair gas price, while Iran warned that Western taxation could derail the energy market, according to AFP. The GECF issued a declaration after the one-day summit, in which the 12 member states emphasized “the need to reach a fair price for natural gas based on gas to oil… prices indexation.” Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi called the meeting “a turning point in the history of the natural gas industry,” but criticized the taxes imposed on energy exports by Western consumer countries. Any taxation by consumer countries “will derail the energy market,” Qasemi stated, adding that the fall in the value of the dollar has “negatively affected the world economy.” The forum unites 12 countries as full members and 3 as observers. The full members possess 70 percent of the world’s gas reserves and account for 42 percent of gas production, 38 percent of transport through gas pipelines, and 85 percent of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business. The GECF members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela, while Kazakhstan, Norway, and the Netherlands have observer status.