Washington (Platts)--9Jul2007

The US House of Representatives has scheduled a floor debate Wednesday on
a resolution expressing its opposition to any effort by natural gas-exporting
countries to form a cartel.

     The resolution, sponsored by Florida Republican Representative Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, was approved June 26 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

     The resolution expresses the sense of the House in "opposition to efforts
by major natural gas exporting countries to establish a cartel or other
mechanism to manipulate the supply of natural gas to the world market for the
purpose of setting an arbitrary and non-market price or as an instrument of
political pressure."

     Ros-Lehtinen, the senior Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, in
March urged the US to take action to oppose moves by world's leading gas
exporters to form an OPEC-like natural gas cartel.

     "It must be a priority for the United States" to halt efforts by
producers to establish a cartel to control the supply of gas, Ros-Lehtinen
said at a committee hearing on world oil supply. 

     Ros-Lehtinen added that if a gas cartel were formed, it would be "a
permanent threat to the world's energy security."

     The congresswoman's warning came after Russian media reported that
Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria had reached an agreement to set up
a natural gas export group similar to OPEC.