Concerns that Russia is trying to form a natural gas cartel along the lines of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may be misplaced, according to analysts and energy executives.

Despite the warning by Nato economists, it is far from certain that Moscow could persuade countries to join any such alliance. In many gas producing countries, the sector is far less-developed than their oil industries and needs greater input of foreign cash and expertise. Norway, Qatar, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Libya and even the much mooted Algeria would find it difficult to attract the huge sums of private-sector investment and know-how needed if the threat of future cutbacks under a cartel arrangement loomed.