Post by justjohn on Sept 22, 2008 2:59:39 GMT -7
Russia is seeking to work with OPEC in a move that will unnerve European countries worried that Moscow is seeking to raise the oil price and control energy supplies.
By Our Foreign Staff
Last Updated: 6:37PM BST 19 Sep 2008
"The prospects of co-operation in a new format between OPEC and the Russian Federation are very interesting," said the energy minister Sergei Shmatko.
Russia will send a high-level delegation to the next meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Algeria in October, headed by the deputy prime minister.
It has also invited OPEC delegates to Moscow, but said it has no intention of joining the cartel.
It would not be the first time that Russia, the world's second-largest producer of crude oil, has worked with the organisation to cut output and push up world fuel prices.
However, Moscow's latest overtures to OPEC, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, follow a period of heightened tension with the West.
During the August war in the Caucasus, Western countries feared that Russia could cut off a crucial pipeline carrying Central Asian gas to Europe.
Russia has already used its own gas supplies to European countries as a tool - stopping exports to Ukraine during the freezing winter months of early 2006.
Following recent Russian moves to supply arms to anti-American OPEC members Venezuela and Iran, the United States also has cause for concern over Moscow's relationship with the group.
"The future coagulation of oil supplies to OPEC is a concern," said Christian Le Miere, a senior analyst at Janes Country Risk.
"But Russia has previously pushed for the creation of a natural gas cartel along the lines of OPEC but it has been unsuccessful. And while it has cut supplies to countries in its 'near abroad' it has not done so to aggravate Western Europe."