Top Gazprom official says ‘in contact with OPEC to exchange information’ but not in compliance with cartel.


PARIS - The vice chairman of Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said Friday that his country could not take part in OPEC-style production quotas to limit output.

"The mechanism of OPEC couldn't be applicable straight-forwardly to the Russian Federation," Alexander Medvedev told a press conference here.

"We are in contact with OPEC to exchange information," he added, saying this was "a good signal for the market because... it gives support (to prices)."

He said Russia could introduce measures to stabilise the country's production but "not in compliance with the OPEC mechanism" and "based on the specifics of our production."

OPEC's 13 members agree in theory to abide by a quota system which allocates output targets to each of them to regulate production.

The cartel has appealed for help to reduce output from non-members Russia, Mexico and Norway but analysts see it as highly unlikely that they will cooperate in a large-scale production reduction.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had said Thursday that his country was ready to join forces with OPEC to stem the plunge in crude prices and could even become part of the oil cartel if membership were in Moscow's interests.

As the world economic crisis hits industrial output and consumer spending around the globe, world oil prices have tumbled from July's all-time high of 147 dollars a barrel to today's mid-40 dollar rate.