OPEC idea to loom over gas producers meeting

DOHA (Reuters) - Big gas powers meet in Qatar on Monday when they are expected to broach issues ranging from soaring production costs to whether they could ever set up a price-fixing cartel.

Speculation the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is seeking to form the gas equivalent of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been repeatedly knocked down and the subject is not on the meeting's official agenda.

But that does not mean it will not be discussed.

Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil has said the idea of a gas OPEC was not initiated by the producer countries and had grown out of the fears of consumer nations.

"It is the consumers really that deep in their subconsciousness want to have a monster," Khelil said, although he added the GECF could consider the issue.

"We may end forming a group of experts in the area to think about it and to keep thinking about it," he said.

Officials from Russia, the world's biggest gas power, have been among those to reject the gas OPEC idea, although the denials are not quite unanimous.

"We believe that any instrument which can play a certain market role and defend the interest of producers will be useful. We as producers should have a chance to set up a properly functioning institution," said Stanislav Tsygankov, head of external relations at Gazprom.

In line with resource nationalism -- or resource-holders retaining a greater share of their wealth -- gas producers could collaborate at the expense of consumers and international oil companies (IOCs) without necessarily creating a cartel.