Doha to host first summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum

Doha will host the first summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum
(GECF) in 2011. The decision was made at a meeting of GECF ministers,
 Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said today.

The forum will allow members of the GECF to exchange views and improve
cooperation between the world's largest gas-extracting companies.
The head of the Russian gas community, Valery Yazev, said that
liberalization of the energy market of the EU had improved regulation
of the market. He said that a balance is needed between liberalization
and administration.

The GECF forum is a union of the world's gas-exporting leaders. It is
similar to the structure of OPEC. The forum was established in Tehran
in 2001 and legally registered in Moscow on December 23, 2008, where
the ministers passed the GECF charter.

Permanent members of the GECF are Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Venezuela,
Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Qatar, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, the UAE, Russia,
Trinidad and Tobago, and Equatorial Guinea.