Saudi Arabia proposed to create an OPEC + type regulator for the gas market

In connection with the unprecedented rise in prices for blue fuel in Europe, the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdel Aziz bin Salman Al Saud, proposed starting to regulate the gas market, as OPEC + does in the oil sector.

– We are already seeing a 500% rise in gas prices, very high coal prices and a 200% rise in LNG prices. If these markets received the same level of attention that we have given to the oil market as OPEC +, then, of course, the situation there now would be much better, - he said, speaking at the Russian Energy Week.

– If we look at the gas and coal market, we will see that they need such a regulator. Perhaps they should just copy past and repeat what we are doing on the oil market, ”the minister said.

The idea was supported by the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Fuel and Energy Complex Alexander Novak, calling it rational, but requiring elaboration. At the same time, he noted that European consumers of natural gas have become hostages of an unbalanced energy policy, in which neither demand nor supply is planned. “There is only hope for the invisible hand of the market, which will ensure supplies,” the Deputy Prime Minister said. Earlier, gas prices in Europe doubled within a month and reached an all-time high of 1937 US dollars per thousand cubic meters.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his readiness to increase the export of natural gas to Europe, natural gas prices in the region fell to $ 1,200. Turkmenistan possesses colossal reserves of blue fuel and is an important player in the global gas market. Discussions are continuing on the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, which will allow the country to supply natural gas to the countries of the European Union and thereby ensure energy stability in the region.

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