7th Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum

As a result of the work of the High Level Committee, the Ministers held on December 23, 2008 in Moscow, Russian Federation, one of their most important meetings, along side with their 1st Meeting in Iran. The 7th Ministerial Meeting established the Gas Exporting Countries Forum as an International Governmental organization with the approval and signing of the Agreement on the functioning of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum and the Statute of the GECF, the documents that constitute the legal basis for the Forum, thus transforming it in to a full-frame international organization.

Still in the name of the organization the word “Forum” was kept to reflect its open and democratic nature. The GECF Agreement and Statute were signed by the Ministers of the current Member countries of the Forum: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. Kazakhstan and Norway were accepted as Observer Members. The city of Doha, Qatar, was selected as the Headquarters of the Forum.