Venezuelan top energy official, who is here for a ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), Monday called on gas powers to reconsider a notion of gas-OPEC.

Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Mines Rafael Ramirez made the appeal following a one-day ministerial meeting of the GECF which has dismissed the gas-OPEC notion to set up a cartel modelling after Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Voicing hope for a superior level of the forum which would take into account policies in addition to technical aspects, Ramirez said a body similar to the OPEC could coordinate member countries' gas policies and utilize the necessary mechanisms to safeguard the common interests.

The minister from South America also released that some countries in his continent have been actively working for an integration of energy.

"We have created an organization, namely Oppegasur, that consists of Bolivia, Argentina, and Venezuela, aiming to become a regional energy union," said Ramirez.

The 16-member Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), an informal group holding 73 percent of the world's total gas reserves and 42 percent of production, announced on earlier Monday to set up a high level committee to collaborate its action instead of the gas- OPEC.

Source: Xinhua