Within the 7th Ministerial meeting agenda of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) heads of the relevant ministries and top managers of national oil and gas companies visited today the Gazprom Headquarters.

The ministerial delegation visited Gazprom’s key operational structure – the Central Production Dispatch Department.

Alexey Miller met with the energy ministers from the GECF member countries. The parties discussed the current trends on the global gas market and the issues of enhancing energy security. The delegation of ministers got acquainted with the key positions of Gazprom’s development strategy and the top-priority projects of the Company.

Special attention was paid to the issues of reforming the feedstock markets infrastructure. As Alexey Miller noted, “there is no crisis on the oil and gas market, but the crisis of the trade, financial & credit infrastructure, which serves this market, really exists. We observe an increasing disparity between the exchange and actual trade in energy resources. The exchange oil trade has turned nowadays into a paper barrel” trade, which does not reflect the real hydrocarbon supply-demand ratio in the world. They are subject to the excessive influence of the monetary, financial market. Anti-crisis measures involve creation of a new, alternate trading and financial & credit infrastructure to service the trade in actual volumes of energy resources, both oil and gas. This subject will become a major one at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum,” said Alexey Miller.

Background:

In May 2001 Teheran hosted the meeting of 10 energy ministers, involving Algeria, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Oman, Russia and Turkmenia (the latter did not take part in the subsequent meetings). The meeting adopted the decision to establish the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. Later on, the following countries joined the Forum:

- Egypt, Libya, Norway (as an observer), Trinidad & Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela in 2003;

- Equatorial Guinea (as an observer) in 2005.

At present, the FGEC serves as a platform for exchange of opinions and information between Ministers of energy (oil and gas) from the member countries and heads of the national gas companies regarding the vital issues of the global gas industry development. The Forum is comprised of 16 participants: Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Venezuela, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Qatar, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway (as an observer), the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago and Equatorial Guinea (as an observer).

After the meeting in Tehran five more Ministerial meetings of the FGEC countries were held: in February 2002 (Algeria), in February 2003 (Qatar), in March 2004 (Egypt), in April 2005 (Trinidad & Tobago), in April 2007 (Qatar).