Doha hosts WNGC on tuesday

Doha is set to host next Tuesday the first World Natural Gas Conference (WNGC) at the initiative of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani with a view to coordinating efforts between the gas producers to further enhance and upgrade the gas industry globally and step up cooperation among them to secure gas supplies across the world plus exchanging expertise on how best to upgrade gas technology. The conference gains special significance as it is being held at a time the world gas industry faces several challenges inter-alia the gas producers ‘quest for adopting a unified mechanism for gas price amid their demand for a balanced price rate at the world energy market similar to the oil price under the huge investments needed for the infrastructure facilities necessary for gas production as being an environment -friendly energy source. Qatar has adopted such an offer through backing such a demand at the international forums and a clear evidence of that was the speech HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani delivered before the inaugural session of the 9th ministerial meeting of the gas producers’ forum held in Doha two years ago. In his speech HH the Emir said that the member states of this gas forum should work together to bring back the interrelationship between gas prices and oil prices and to achieve a sort of parity and balance between them. Meanwhile the ministers who attended the 12th ministerial meeting of the Gas Producers' Forum held in Cairo last June had stressed the importance of concluding long term gas contracts and achieving fair prices to the natural gas in a way running in conformity with the oil prices. The WNGC conference is also an opportunity for the gas exporting countries to ensure the development of effective mechanisms and programmes to enhance cooperation and exchange of technical information among them and to promote the use of natural gas in new sectors such as transport and industry GTL. Two days prior to the said conference,  the 13th Ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries' forum will convene to  prepare and coordinate for the conference of the leaders as Doha will be the seat of the permanent headquarters of the secretariat of the Forum. It should be noted that in 2001 , three of the largest gas producing countries, namely Russia, Iran and Qatar had met in Tehran to discuss the formation of this forum where the State of Qatar has become one of the founding members and the 15 members of the 7th ministerial meeting held in Moscow on Dec.23, 2008 Moscow decided to adopt the Charter of the founding of the forum and decided to set up the Secretariat headquarters of the Forum in Doha, Qatar, which is the largest LNG exporters in the world. (END)