NATO advisers have warned that Russia may be seeking to create a gas cartel stretching from Algeria to central Asia to use as a political weapon in dealings with Europe, the Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday quoting its sources in the military bloc.

The warning of a Russian-backed “OPEC for gas” came in a confidential report by NATO’s economic committee presented to alliance nations last week.

It concluded that Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas, was aiming to draw Algeria, Libya, Qatar, the countries of central Asia and possibly Iran into a cartel wielding huge power over the gas market.

That would strengthen Moscow’s hand in relations with Europe and particularly with neighbours such as Ukraine and Georgia, which Moscow wants to dissuade from moving closer to Western bodies such as NATO and the European Union, the sources said.

“It quotes (Foreign Minister Sergei) Lavrov as saying as much in private meetings with other Russian officials,” said one alliance source who had seen the document, referring to the political power such a cartel could wield.

A NATO spokesman declined to comment on the report because it was confidential. The Financial Times first reported its existence in an article on Tuesday.

An alliance source said it represented the views of experts from national capitals rather than an official NATO view, and noted that it made no recommendations on possible NATO action.

Popularity: 1% [?]