Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 18
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh expressed hope that Tehran would sign new oil and gas contracts worth $30 billion within the next two years.
He elaborated on the upcoming summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) to be held on 23 November in Tehran and said that the GECF has 12 permanent member states and five observer states, Shana news agency reported Nov. 18.
He said that several countries including Russia, Iraq, Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea are expected to attend the summit at presidential level.
Iran, Russia, Algeria, the UAE, Venezuela, Qatar, Egypt, Bolivia, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago are the members of the forum and the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Peru, Iraq, Oman, and Norway hold observer status.
On November 16, Azizollah Ramezani, the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) director for international affairs said that a new global gas model, studied during last five years, will be unveiled at the summit.
The new model is expected to be beneficial to the GECF member states for making investment plans and also developing their export markets.
Together, the GECF's 12 member countries account for 67% of the world's gas reserves, for 64% of global LNG exports and for 42% of cross-border pipeline trade.
Iran with 34 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves ranks number one in the world, but the huge amount of domestic consumption allows the country to export only about 30 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of gas despite a 700-mcm/d production level.
However, in the light of country's hope for lifting of sanctions in the first half of 2016 as well as accelerating development of giant South Pars, Iran is preparing to become a major gas exporter.
Coming to GECF, Iran advantages a unique geological opportunities to realize an interaction atmosphere among members instead of competition as well as to link regional producers-customers.