The Next Global Energy Cartel: The Gas Exporting Countries Forum is getting its act together.

On Wednesday, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) held its ninth ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar. The once informal and disorganized group of major natural gas exporters and producers is becoming a more serious and influential organization. The group has continued formalizing its bureaucratic structure and, on Wednesday, elected its first secretary-general, an energy executive from Russia named Leonid Bokhanovsky. Facing drastically reduced demand and rock-bottom prices, the Forum's 15 member countries have become desperate to work together to drive natural gas prices up to a "fair" level. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared, "The era of cheap natural gas is coming to an end."

GECF members control over 70% of the world's natural gas reserves, 38% of the pipeline trade and 85% of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. The three dominant members--Russia, Iran and Qatar--alone hold about 57% of global gas reserves.

This group of gas exporters is in many ways similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in its early days. Founded in 1960, OPEC was equally disorganized and ineffective in the beginning, even though its member countries controlled significant shares of oil reserves and production.