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By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW, May 10 (Reuters) - OPEC is effectively extinct as aunited organisation and the time when it could determine globaloil market conditions should be forgotten, Igor Sechin, head ofRussia's biggest oil firm Rosneft, told Reuters.
The comments are the first from Russia's most influentialoil executive after crude producers failed to agree to freezeoutput to support prices at a meeting in Qatar last month.
A long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, Sechin hasbeen sceptical about OPEC before, saying that top oil producerRussia should stick to its own strategy and protect its marketshare.
"The 1970s, when a series of the largest Middle Eastproducers could determine global oil market conditions bycreating cartel structures such as OPEC, should be forgotten,"Sechin told Reuters in e-mailed comments.
"At the moment a number of objective factors exclude thepossibility for any cartels to dictate their will to the market.... As for OPEC, it has practically stopped existing as a unitedorganisation."
A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producersfell apart at a meeting in Doha last month after Saudi Arabiarefused to commit without Iran joining in.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is the keydecision maker in OPEC and a fierce rival of fellow OPEC memberIran. Russia is not a member of OPEC.
Sechin, 55, helped Putin consolidate a third of the Russianoil industry under Rosneft's control following chaoticprivatisations in the 1990s.
He has previously said that OPEC has "lost its teeth" andhas said Moscow would never cooperate with OPEC because Russia'soil industry could withstand any price rout thanks to cheaplabour and a weak local currency.
"Sechin has long been totally against the idea (ofcooperating with OPEC). He believes that as a superpower Russiashould not be making this type of alliance," said a source fromoutside Russia who has been involved in meetings between OPECand Russia in recent years.
With the Doha debacle, Sechin's stock is likely to haverisen in Putin's eyes.
"The company was sceptical from the very beginning about thepossibility of reaching any sort of joint agreement with OPEC'sinvolvement in current conditions," Sechin said.
"Just to remind you, the only question with which weresponded to those interested in knowing our position was: 'Whoshould we agree with and how?' The development of the situationhas clearly shown we were right."
Sechin made his comments before Saudi Arabia replaced Alial-Naimi as oil minister over the weekend. (Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by AlexanderWinning/Andrew Osborn)
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