Not easy to set up ?OPEC? for gas: Purnomo

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Thursday it is not easy to set up a OPEC-like organization for natural gas producers.

"You have to realize that gas and oil are very different things (because) oil is concentrated in the Middle East, while natural gas are scattered in many places, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, Latin America. So it's easy to set up an OPEC," he said, without elaborating.

He said Indonesia hasn't received any formal proposal to help form such organization.

The idea of setting up such kind of organization was recently voiced by Iran.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Russia, the world's biggest holder of gas reserves, to help create an organization of natural gas producing countries, the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, reported last month. (Godang)