The extraordinary meeting of the Executive Board of the eighth summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was held today (Sunday, October 25) under the chairmanship of Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, Deputy for International Affairs and Commerce of the Ministry of Oil in Moscow. The purpose of this meeting was to make necessary arrangements for the upcoming two-day summit and to review administrative matters and ongoing affairs related to the Secretariat of this Forum.
Planning for Future Meetings
Ehsaun Taghvinijad, Director General of OPEC Affairs, Assemblies, and International Organizations at the Ministry of Oil, announced that one of the main focuses of this meeting was to review and set the agendas for the ministerial and leaders' meetings of the GECF. This Forum serves as an intergovernmental framework for dialogue and coordination among natural gas producing and exporting countries.
Leaders' and Ministerial Meetings
The leaders' and ministers' meetings of this Forum are held to exchange views on developments in gas markets, supply and demand outlook, energy security, and the role of natural gas in the global energy mix. The eighth leaders' summit of this Forum will take place on Tuesday (October 27), and the twenty-eighth ministerial meeting will be held on Monday (October 26).
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum holds its leaders' summit every two years. The first summit of this Forum was held in 2011 in Doha, Qatar, followed by Moscow in 2013, Tehran in 2015, Santa Cruz, Bolivia in 2017, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2019, Doha in 2022, and Algiers in 2024 hosting the subsequent sessions. Additionally, this Forum has held 27 ministerial meetings to date.
Currently, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum has 12 main members including Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Countries such as Angola, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Peru, and Senegal also participate as observer countries in this Forum.
According to announced statistics, the member countries of the Forum hold approximately 70% of the world's proven natural gas reserves, 38% of commercial gas production, and 42% of global gas exports. The share of these countries in liquefied natural gas exports is also estimated to be around 47%.
