Tehran, Caracas Discuss Market Trends on Sidelines of GECF Meeting

Iran’s caretaker oil minister and Venezuela's oil minister met in Moscow on Monday to exchange views on the latest developments in global crude oil markets and on OPEC and OPEC+ agreements, on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

Hamid Bovard, Iran's acting oil minister, traveled to the Russian capital to attend the forum's 28th ministerial meeting and to accompany President Masoud Pezeshkian at the group's eighth summit. He met with Venezuelan Oil Minister Paula Henao.

The two sides noted their history of bilateral cooperation in oil and energy. They also discussed recent developments in global crude markets and issues related to agreements by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the wider OPEC+ alliance, which includes OPEC and its allies.

The ministerial meeting took place a day before the summit, which is set for Tuesday in Moscow.

The forum's heads of state meet every two years. The first summit was held in Doha, Qatar, in 2011. Later summits took place in Moscow in 2013, Tehran in 2015, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 2017, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2019, Doha in 2022 and Algiers in 2024. The forum has held 27 ministerial meetings since it was founded.

The forum has 12 full members: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Angola, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Peru and Senegal are observers.

Together, member countries hold about 70% of the world's proven natural gas reserves, 38% of its commercial gas production and 42% of its gas exports, according to figures released by the group. Their share of global liquefied natural gas exports is estimated at about 47%. - Shana