By Selen Tonkus and Arif Hudaverdi Yaman
ANKARA
The reports in the Australian press claiming a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia to build a new "Global Energy Body" during the G-20 Summit are not realistic, according to the experts.
Experts said that Saudi Arabia and Russia have major differences in their political and economic operations that would make such cooperation impossible.
"A cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia in energy field is a conflict in terms of their overall political approaches," said Oktay F. Tanrisever from the Middle East Technical University. "Russia's energy ties would concern other consumer countries and that would disturb investors," he added.
Tanrisever said Russia's current position is already a threat to Europe's energy security and added "a new establishment by Russia would increase that threat."
Tanrisever's views were echoed by Cuneyt Kazokoglu, an oil consultant at FGE, an international energy consultancy group based in London.
The relations between Russia and the EU-U.S. block are not appropriate for such cooperation, Kazokoglu said.
He said that the possible establishment of a new global energy body would not be more that symbolic. "The interests of the International Energy Authority which mostly represents OECD countries, OPEC which is headed by Saudi Arabia, and Russia are mostly controversial. That makes such an body a long way from being operational."
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