Owji said at the 23rd Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, that in addition to breaching the international laws and norms and threatening the international peace and stability, the unilateral sanctions can affect making investments, and transfer of technology, especially in energy, and particularly in gas industries.
He said that the world economy suffered greatly during the Corona pandemic, and the world gas market, too, respectively suffered noticeably, whose aftermaths will be seen in production and consumption patterns in the world in the mid-time by emergence of major developments.
Despite the entire difficulties during the past two years, the GECF countries have managed to remain committed to the reiterated objectives and fundamentals in GEFC Letter of Association and manage the irregularities in world gas market.
The petroleum minister referred to the key role played by gas in energy’s purgatory period, arguing: Natural gas played an important and key role during the purgatory period of energy into a sustainable energy system with less carbon, due to its environmental and economic privileges, even though the renewable energies, too, existed, since in order to make certain about provision of sustainable energy resources and achieving the green energies’ objectives, gas can be a part of that major objective.
The 23rd Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was held on 16 November 2021, under the Chairmanship of HE Franklin Molina Ortiz, Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energies of the State of Bolivia as its President. The meeting was convened by videoconference.
On the backdrop of unprecedentedly high gas prices fracturing market stability, the 23rd Meeting was attended by Energy Ministers and senior figures from GECF Members Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela, as well as Angola, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Malaysia, Norway, Peru, and the UAE as Observers