Gas Exporting Countries Forum

Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF)
Logo
Members (blue) and observers (orange) of the Gas-Exporting Countries Forum.
Headquarters		Doha, Qatar
Type		Trade forum
Members[1]		11 states  Algeria  Bolivia  Egypt  Equatorial Guinea  Iran  Libya  Nigeria  Qatar  Russia  Trinidad and Tobago  Venezuela 3 observers  Kazakhstan  Netherlands  Norway
Leaders
-	Secretary General	Mohammad Hossein Adeli
Establishment		Tehran, Iran
-	Forum	May 19–20, 2001
-	Statute
Website www.gecf.org

Dmitry Medvedev and the participants in the seventh ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries' Forum (GECF), Moscow Kremlin, 2008.

Vladimir Putin and the participants in the meeting of the heads of state and government of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), Moscow Kremlin, 2013.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is an intergovernmental organization of 11 of the world's leading natural gas producers made up of Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. GECF members together control over 70% of the world's natural gas reserves, 38% of the pipeline trade and 85% of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) production.^[2] The three largest reserve-holders in the GECF – Russia, Iran and Qatar – together hold about 57% of global gas reserves.^[2]

History

The GECF was established in Tehran, Iran, in 2001. Until the seventh ministerial meeting in Moscow, Russia, it operated without charter and fixed membership structure. The seventh ministerial meeting, held on 23 December 2008 in Moscow, adapted the organization's charter.^[3] At the same time, it was decided to set up an Executive Office and a Secretariat in Doha, Qatar. On the eighth ministerial meeting in June 2009, energy minister of Qatar Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah was elected as the chairman (president) of the GECF and Algerian energy minister Chakib Khelil was elected as vice-chairman.^[4][5][6] On the ninth ministerial meeting in December 2009, the vice-president of Russian energy engineering and construction company Stroytransgaz Leonid Bokhanovsky was elected as Secretary-General.^[7] He was re-elected at the thirteenth ministerial meeting in December 2011.^[8] In 2013, GECF ministers elected Iran’s candidate Mohammad-Hossein Adeli, a former head of central bank and diplomat, as the new Secretary-General of the forum for the next two years.

Objectives

The objectives of the GECF are:

• to foster the concept of mutuality of interests by favoring dialogue between producers, between producers and consumers and between governments and energy-related industries;
• to provide a platform to promote study and exchange of views;
• to promote a stable and transparent energy market.

Organizational structure

The highest body of the GECF is a ministerial meeting. In between of ministerial meetings, the work is organized through the Secretariat, headquartered in Doha, Qatar. The 2009 chairman of the GECF was Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah and the vice chairman was Chakib Khelil.^[4][5] The Secretary-General is Leonid Bokhanovsky.^[7]

Ministerial meetings

The GECF has had ministerial meetings since 2001:

Summits

Holding the GECF's summit was decided at the 10th ministerial meeting in Oran in 2010. The first GECF's summit was held in Doha on 15 November 2011, under patronage of Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, following the thirteenth ministerial meeting held at the same place on 13 November 2011.^[10] Two main issues which were discussed at the summit, were natural gas prices and a common approach to the natural gas market.^[11] It was agreed on the summit that the price of gas used to generate electricity is too low and the gap between prices for gas and crude oil need to be narrowed. The linking of gas prices to the oil price was considered. However, the GECF will not set output limits for its members.^[12] The summit issued "Doha Declaration", which said that GECF members "recognized the importance of long-term gas contracts to achieve a balanced risk sharing mechanism between producers and consumers." and
"acknowledge the need to reach a fair price for natural gas based on gas to oil/oil products prices indexation with the objective of an oil and gas price convergence ..."^[13][14] Russian president Dmitry Medvedev made a statement calling the summit "an important event, which marked a new stage in the development of the global energy sector and the gas sector in particular."^[15]

Russia has expressed its readiness to host the second summit of GECF.^[16]

Membership

The members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.^[7][17] Kazakhstan, Norway and the Netherlands are observers. Other countries like Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen have participated at different meetings.^{[4][18][19][20]} Yemen and Angola are interested to become members of the organization.^[21][22] The full membership will be granted by the approval of at least three quarters of all members.^[18]

Country	Region	Signed GECF statute	Population (July 2012 est.)[23]	Area (km²)[24]
Algeria	Africa	2008	35,406,303	2,381,741
Bolivia	South America	2008	10,290,003	1,098,581
Egypt	Africa	2008	83,688,164	1,001,450
Equatorial Guinea	Africa	2008	685,991	28,051
Iran	Middle East	2008	78,868,711	1,648,195
Libya	Africa	2008	6,733,620	1,759,540
Nigeria	Africa	2008	170,123,740	923,768
Qatar	Middle East	2008	1,951,591	11,586
Russia	Europe	2008	138,082,178	17,098,242
Trinidad and Tobago	South America	2008	1,226,383	5,128
Venezuela	South America	2008	28,047,938	912,050
Total			555,104,622	26,868,332 km²

Gas OPEC

Since the establishment of the GECF in 2001 there has always been speculation that some of the world's largest producers of natural gas, in particular Russia and Iran, intend to create a gas cartel equivalent to OPEC which would set quotas and prices. The idea of a gas OPEC was first floated by then Russian President Vladimir Putin and backed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in 2002. In May 2006 Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev threatened that Russia would create "an alliance of gas suppliers that will be more influential than OPEC" if Russia did not get its way in energy negotiations with Europe.^[25] Iranian officials have explicitly expressed strong support for a gas cartel and held official talks with Russia.^[26][26] Cartel speculation was again raised when the ministers met on 9 April 2007.^[27][28] The 6th Ministerial Meeting of the GECF established an expert group, chaired by Russia, to study how to strengthen the GECF. According to the Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil, this mean that in the long term the GECF will move toward becoming a gas OPEC.^[28] On 11 December 2009, Russia's Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko stated: "Today we can speak about gas OPEC as a fully fledged international organization. By a unanimous decision a Russian national was elected its secretary general. This is to show that member countries expect Russia to use its political weight to promote it."^[29]

Creation of the "Gas OPEC" was one of the topics of the first GECF's summit. However, some GECF's members are concerned over the gas exports to be politicized.^[30]

See also

• Energy security
• Energy superpower
• Petrochemical Exporting Countries Forum

References

Bibliography

• Hallouche, Hadi (June 2006). The Gas Exporting Countries Forum: Is it really a Gas OPEC in the Making? (PDF). Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. ISBN 978-1-901795-50-9. Retrieved 2008-12-26. 
• Socor, Vladimir (2008). "A Russian-led "OPEC for Gas"? Design, Implications, Countermeasures" (PDF). Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review (Foreign Policy Research Center) (20). ISSN 1392-5504. Retrieved 2008-12-26. 
• Flynn, Chris; Dyer, Erin (2008). "The Creation of a Gas Cartel v The Commoditisation of Gas". The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Gas Regulation 2008. Global Legal Group. pp. 1–3. Retrieved 2008-12-26. 

External links

• GECF.org
• Gas Exporting Countries Forum: The Russian-Iranian Gas Cartel

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