The GECF ministers in Malabo, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, on 21 November 2012. The meeting was organised by Gabriel M. Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy of Equatorial Guinea to exchange views on the current development of the global market for natural gas and the progress made by the forum.
Malabo hosted the Fourteenth Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) held on 21 November 2012. The meeting was attended by Ministers and Delegation Leaders from the GECF’s twelve Member Countries: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, as well as the Netherlands as an Observer Member. The General Secretary of the GECF, Leonid Bokhanovskiy, and Ilya Galkin, the President of the Executive Board, also attended the meeting.
The ministers stressed the importance of natural gas as an environmentally-friendly fuel, an abundant resource and a safe, clean, reliable and efficient energy source. They acknowledged the efforts being made by the Member Countries to promote the stable supply of natural gas in order to guarantee the security of sustainable demand and the necessary conditions for infrastructure development. They also stressed the importance of adopting a non-discriminatory and foreseeable legal framework together with energy, commercial, tax and environmental policies to increase the development of the gas industry.
The ministers also examined the changing nature of gas market dynamics and the appearance of new producers and consumers, modern technologies, as well as non-conventional and renewable energy sources that are constantly changing the energy outlook. The ministers reiterated the Member Countries’ support for international efforts aimed at tackling environmental problems. They called for continued cooperation, coordination and exchange of opinions between Member Countries, as well as other industry bodies to achieve the GECF’s aims, and they agreed to hold the Second Summit of Heads of State and Government in the Russian Federation in 2013 and to carry out the next Ordinary Ministerial Meeting in the Islamic Republic of Iran in November 2013.
The ministers accepted the Republic of Iraq’s request to be a GECF Observer Member. The GECF’s work programme and budget for 2013 was also approved and they announced the appointment of Rostam Ghasemi, Minister of Oil of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as President of the Ministerial Meeting 2013, and Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar, as Alternate President of the Ministerial Meeting 2013. While he presided over the Ministerial Meeting, the ministers expressed their gratitude to Minister Gabriel M. Obiang Lima for his efforts in 2012.
Source: GECF
