Moscow, March 24: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Russia and Qatar, both major producers of natural gas, should coordinate their efforts as the two nations seek to invest in each other’s projects.
“It’s very important for us to coordinate joint work,” Putin told visiting Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani.
Russia, holder of the world’s largest gas reserves, and the tiny Gulf nation, which has the third largest reserves, are members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum that is set to meet in the Algerian city of Oran on April 19.
Cooperation between the group’s members is meant to “stabilize the situation on the global gas market” and avoid price competition between producers, the Kremlin said in a statement ahead of Sheikh Hamad’s visit.
The Qatar-based forum, which was finalised at a meeting in Moscow in 2008, has been dubbed the “Gas OPEC” and has raised concerns that it could become a cartel dominating the global natural gas market.
Putin told Sheikh Hamad that investment cooperation between their two countries looked promising, saying Russia was ready to “participate in some investment projects in Qatar.” He did not elaborate.
Earlier on Wednesday a delegation led by Sheikh Hamad met Alexei Miller, the head of Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom, and expressed interest in gas extraction on Russia’s Yamal peninsula, Gazprom said in a statement.
Gazprom says it is considering the possibility of constructing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Yamal.
Qatar is the world’s largest producer of LNG.
“We are very interested in cooperating with Russia, investing in Russia,” Sheikh Hamad told Putin in comments released by the Russian government.
“We have big ideas and we are hoping that we will be able to significantly move forward thanks to your and our efforts.”
—Agencies