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Alison-Madueke emerges president of Gas Exporting Countries Forum

By BusinessNews Staff on December 18, 2014

A few weeks after the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, emerged the first female President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), she was Tuesday appointed the President of the Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Doha, Qatar.

Also at its 16th ministerial meeting the same day, the member countries of GECF appointed the Minister of Oil and Gas of Libya, Mr. Mashala SA Said, as the Alternate President.

The meeting of GECF, an equivalent of OPEC, was attended by ministers from Algeria, Iran, Libya, Qatar, Russia and United Arab Emirate, while the Heads of Delegations from Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela were observers.

Alison-Madueke, who, until then, was the Alternate President, was however absent at the meeting but Nigeria’s Ambassador to Qatar, Ambassador Shuaibu Ahmed and the Group Executive Director in charge of Gas and Power at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. David Ige, were in attendance.

Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar, Dr. Mohammed Saleh Al Sada, said the organisation noted that the global gas demand is increasing, while it is decreasing in Europe due to the weak economy and policy measures.

“However, the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trade is increasing and is taking a greater share of global gas trade. The ministers decided to start the preparations for the Third Gas Summit in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran in 2015,” he said.

THISDAY gathered that as the oil price continues to drop at the international market, Nigeria and other major gas producing countries are seeking a formidable OPEC-like bloc to create a stable and reliable gas market to argument the dwindling revenue from oil.

GECF, which will hold its 17th ministerial meeting in Abuja in 2015, is a gathering of the world’s leading gas producers, being forced by the falling crude oil prices to strengthen the 15- year- old forum to build a mechanism for stability and security of supply and demand for gas.

The forum had its inaugural session in Tehran, Iran, which was attended by governments of Algeria, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Turkmenistan and Norway in May, 2001.

A few years later, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, as well as Iraq, and with the Netherlands as observer joined the forum.
Today, the member countries of the forum are: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

However, Kazakhstan, Iraq, The Netherlands, Norway and Oman have the status of observer members.

The members of GECF have a strong position on the world gas market as they account for 67 per cent of the world proven natural gas reserves.

The secretariat, which is the governing body established in 2010 in Doha, also functions as the headquarters of the organisation, in accordance with the agreement between the State of Qatar and GECF.

The Secretary General runs the secretariat as the chief officer, while the president presides over the meetings of the body.

Mr. Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli of Iran was elected Secretary General during the 15th GECF ministerial meeting on November 3, 2013 for the period 2014-2016.

Adeli, who succeeded the Russian Federation representative, Leonid Bokhanovsky, assumed office on January 1, 2014.

The objectives of GECF “are to support the sovereign rights of member countries over their natural gas resources and their abilities to independently plan and manage the sustainable, efficient and environmentally conscious development, use and conservation of natural gas resources for the benefit of their peoples.”

The member countries seek to promote these objectives through the exchange of experience and ideas on worldwide gas exploration and production trends; present and anticipated supply-demand balance for gas; worldwide gas exploration, production and transportation technologies; the structure and development of gas markets (regional and global); and transport of gas: pipelines and LNG carriers.

[ThisDay]

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