MOSCOW (AFP) — The presidents of Russia and Algeria, two of Europe's biggest natural gas suppliers, met to discuss energy ties here on Tuesday amid a drive to create an OPEC-like gas cartel.
"It's extremely important that we keep in touch on energy issues, particularly since Algeria this year is chairing OPEC," Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Bouteflika told Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency in an interview published on Tuesday ahead of the meeting that major world gas exporters should "coordinate" their energy policies.
The idea of creating a gas cartel to control prices and supplies has been pushed by Iran and Qatar, and Putin earlier said it was "an interesting proposition." Qatar has said the plan will be discussed in Moscow in June.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom meanwhile said in a statement that the company's CEO Alexei Miller visited Iran on Tuesday and agreed on "joint activity in the transport, refinement and marketing of natural gas."
Asked about plans for a cartel, Bouteflika said: "It's clear that countries such as Russia, Qatar and Algeria already play a major role on international gas markets and they should coordinate their activities even more."
He said that the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), set up in Tehran in 2001, should "play a more active role" and that gas suppliers to the European Union should team up against "restrictive laws" on energy imports.
Russia in 2005 accounted for 45.1 percent of the European Union's gas imports, Norway 24.1 percent and Algeria 20.6 percent, with the latter's share expected to rise, according to official EU data.
European officials have expressed concern over the prospect of closer energy ties between Algeria and Russia, particularly after Russian and Algerian state energy companies Gazprom and Sonatrach signed a cooperation deal in 2006.
Qatar has said the cartel idea will be discussed at a meeting of GECF countries in Moscow in June. Analysts have said the plan is gaining momentum because of the increased use of liquefied natural gas.
Bouteflika's first official visit to Moscow follows a trip by Putin to Algiers in 2006 when Russia wrote off Soviet-era debt in exchange for arms purchases by Algeria of around seven billion dollars (4.8 billion euros.)
But military ties between the two countries were clouded on Tuesday after Algeria said it wanted to return 15 Mig-29 fighter jets bought from Russia because of their low quality, Russian newspapers reported.
Putin said at the start of the talks with Bouteflika that the two leaders had "many issues of military-technical cooperation" to discuss, without giving any further details.
"The announcement of the annulment of the Algerian (plane) contract is the first major scandal in Russia's military-technical cooperation with foreign states," the Izvestia daily said.
On Monday, the Kommersant daily cited an official from the state-run United Aerospace Corporation as saying that Russia could take the jets back but only if Algeria agreed to buy different planes.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
