What most people do not know is an organization called the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). It is an organization of the world's leading gas producers, which was established in Tehran in 2001. The official aims 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 the exchange of views; and to promote a stable and transparent energy market. The GECF doesn't have a fixed and exact membership structure; however, Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela could be identified as current members because they consistently take part in GECF sessions. Turkmenistan, Bolivia, Libya and Oman have participated at different ministerial meetings. Norway is considered an observer.
The forum has had six ministerial meetings so far: Tehran 2001, Algiers 2002, Doha 2003, Cairo 2004, Port of Spain 2005, Doha 2007. The sixth ministerial meeting was scheduled to take place in 2006 in Caracas, Venezuela, but was later postponed and the venue changed to Doha. The meeting was held in April 2007.
The next ministerial session of the GECF will be held in Tehran next Monday, and it seems it will present a opportunity for the discussion of a unique charter, which Russia and Iran have been promoting for some time.
According to Russian sources, a draft charter of the GECF was sent to the relevant authorities of the 14 member states late last week. The document was authored by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy and Gazprom at the end of last year and took three months to be finally accepted; it will be presented by Deputy Ministry of Industry and Energy Anatoly Yanovsky in Tehran next week.
The exact content and details of the charter are not known at this stage and are probably still being discussed, but according to informed sources it proposes the necessity of creating an international platform for the development of a universal formula for the price of gas; the use of spot deliveries with the aim of compensating for shortages of volume in the course of fulfilling long-term contracts, and the determination of the expediency of the construction of new gas pipelines, taking into account the forecast risk.
Iran, on the other hand, is prepared to present the forum with a charter of its own, written along the lines of the OPEC charter and model and which is also supported by Libya, for instance. Last week Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi stated at a lunch honoring Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin that Tripoli supports "the idea of creating an organization of gas producing and exporting countries on the model of OPEC."
Elaborating on the Iranian view as regards the OPEC model Javad Yarjani, the deputy Iranian oil minister for OPEC and international energy affairs, stated last Wednesday that setting up a gas OPEC-style cartel would boost the relations of gas exporting countries. He made the statement on the sidelines of the 11th International Energy Forum in Rome, adding that members of the GECF have all voiced interest in the plan.
From all this information and these statements we can say that the Tehran session will undoubtedly become a forum for the discussion of the GECF charter and will be closely watched by energy circles. Of course, no clear outcome will come out of these discussions, but progress of some kind is expected, which will be taken up at the next forum in June in Moscow.
In short, the GECF, its policies, meetings and probable charter concern all of us in this age of rising oil and gas prices.
