MOSCOW — The head of Russia's Security Council said Jan. 30 that there are no plans to form a cartel of natural gas producers like OPEC, but that major natural gas suppliers wanted to coordinate their policies.

Igor Ivanov said that Iranian officials raised the idea during his visit to Tehran earlier in the month. “As far as I am aware, we're not talking here about creating a structure like OPEC but about a desire or interest in gas producers coordinating their policies in the gas sphere,” he told reporters.

“This is natural,” Ivanov said, adding that it would enable gas producers to protect their interests.

The Russian daily Kommersant reported Jan. 30 that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had proposed during his meeting with Ivanov that the two countries forge a gas cartel similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, citing the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Late last year, The Financial Times reported that a confidential study by NATO economic experts warned Russia may be seeking to build a gas cartel including Algeria, Qatar, Libya, the countries of Central Asia and perhaps Iran.

Russia already provides 44 percent of EU gas imports, and its share of EU energy supplies is expected to grow as demands for imports increase.

Arkady Dvorkovich, a top economic aide to President Vladimir Putin, said in November that Russia doesn't intend to initiate the creation of a global natural gas cartel, but said such a project couldn't be totally ruled out.

Russia has been involved in tough talks with the EU, which is urging it to open its vast energy resources and export pipelines to European investors.

Putin and other officials have insisted on a strong state role in the energy sector and urged EU nations to offer its energy assets in exchange for EU companies' role in exploring Russia's mineral riches.