Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan could become full member of GECF – secretary general

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Iraq have chances to get full membership of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), the organization’s secretary general Yury Sentyurin said, speaking with the 'Neftegazovaya Vertikal' magazine.

He said about plans to work with observer countries at GECF. "I hope to convince them to raise their level of participation in the organization," the secretary general added.

Sentyurin noted that in recent years, the structure of suppliers and consumers has changed dramatically in the global natural gas market and one of the reasons is the development of liquefied natural gas production, which has allowed a significant number of new countries to enter the natural gas market as suppliers.

According to him, Africa, South-East and Central Asia are of greatest interest in terms of expanding the geography of GECF. "Certainly, this will require careful study with each country and for the time being, we cannot talk about a specific list of candidates," GECF’s secretary general pointed out.

"An important criterion for potential members should be their status of net gas exporters,  which will enable GECF to maintain its ability to achieve coordinated decisions on acute issues," the GECF secretary general stressed.