Moscow (Platts)--11Nov2008

Senior officials from the world's top three gas powers--Russia, Qatar and
Iran--are meeting in the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday to follow up recent
high-level discussions on trilateral gas cooperation, with a focus on Iran's
massive South Pars gas field, Russia's Gazprom said Tuesday.

"As part of the ongoing discussions between Russia, Qatar and Iran on
expanding cooperation, Gazprom representatives will on Wednesday participate
in a meeting of a technical committee that will discuss details of the
implementation of the joint South Pars project," Gazprom said without further
explanation.

The Russian gas giant and Iran have a bilateral agreement to set up a
joint energy company to explore investment opportunities in Iran, including
development of some phases of the South Pars gas field.

Qatar, which holds the third-biggest natural gas reserves after Russia
and Iran, is home to the North Field, an extension of South Pars.

The Gazprom statement is the first time that the prospect of a trilateral
effort to develop Iran's South Pars involving Qatar has been mooted.

A source close to the planned meeting confirmed that the three sides
would discuss joint development of South Pars but would not say whether an
agreement was imminent.

Iranian and Qatari officials were not available for comment.

Relations between Iran and Qatar, both oil-producing members of OPEC,
have grown closer in recent months following a visit to Tehran by Qatari Emir
Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, a key US ally in the Persian Gulf.

Iran's offshore South Pars gas field and Qatar's North Field are part of
the same structure and contain the largest concentration of non-associated
natural gas in the world.

But while Qatar has pressed ahead with the rapid development of the North
Field, becoming the world's biggest exporter of LNG, Iran has yet to develop
its full gas potential.

Lately, Iranian energy officials have announced their intention to start
developing South Pars sectors adjacent to the North Field because of fears
that excessive drilling by Qatar may cause depletion on their side of the
massive structure.

Qatar has imposed a moratorium on new upstream gas projects pending a
major reservoir study on the North Field and the results would be of interest
to the Iranians as they proceed with developing their own LNG industry.

Tehran, which is finding it increasingly difficult to bring in foreign
investors into its energy sector as a result of UN, EU and US sanctions, has
been looking increasingly to Russian companies for help in developing its oil
and gas fields.

The statement by Gazprom said the Doha talks would also discuss
trilateral exploration, production, processing and transportation of natural
gas, including LNG.

The meeting between high-level representatives from the three countries
will follow up on a meeting held last month in Tehran.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari, his Qatari counterpart
Abdullah al-Attiyah and Gazprom CEO Alexi Miller, held the first high-level
meeting in Tehran on October 21.

The three agreed on the establishment of a high-level committee to follow
up collaboration in such areas as partnership in gas markets and gas field
development.

In Tehran, the three countries--which between them control more than half
the world's natural gas reserves--agreed to put on the agenda the
establishment of an OPEC-like grouping for gas-exporting countries or what
Miller referred to later as a "gas troika."

Alexander Medvedev, deputy CEO of Gazprom and chief of its export arm,
Gazprom Export, will represent Russia at the talks Wednesday, a spokesman with
Gazprom Export said. Iran will be represented by its deputy oil minister Reza
Kasaizadeh, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Exports Company.

Meanwhile, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said he hoped
the creation of the gas exporters' organization by the three countries will
help stabilize global gas prices and benefit both producers and consumers of
gas.

"There is no hidden agenda. We want to stabilize the market, to reach the
optimal price level, which will be acceptable for producers, consumers and
transit countries," Russia's RIA Novosti news agency quoted Lavrov as saying,
"I am sure it will have an invigorating effect on global markets."

The three gas giants are members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum
(GECF), which some members want to transform into a more formal organization
along the lines of the oil producers' cartel.

Moscow is set to host the next meeting of the gas exporters' forum but no
date has been set yet after a previous plan to hold the meeting in November
failed to materialize amid reports that the three could not agree on which
country would host a permanent secretariat for the organization.

The GECF, which had its first meeting in Tehran in 2001, also includes
Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Venezuela, Egypt, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia,
Nigeria, the UAE, Oman, Trinidad and Tobago, and Equatorial Guinea.

The group last met in Doha last year and agreed to set up a committee to
look into how to restructure the grouping in order to coordinate policies and
price mechanisms in time for the Moscow meeting.

Moves to coordinate the policies of GECF members, who control two-thirds
of global gas reserves, have raised fears in consuming countries about the
possible emergence of a cartel-type organization.

But former Russian president Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that there were
no plans to establish an OPEC-like cartel and that the gas forum was no threat
to consuming countries.
--Anna Shiryaevskaya, anna_shiryaevskaya@platts.com