The Gas Exporting Countries Forum said on Tuesday that the natural gas market is undergoing drastic changes in terms of quantities pumped, market conditions and investments in it.
-Advertisement-
According to a statement that followed the 24th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the participants said that market developments due to the Russian-Ukrainian war led to fluctuations in gas centers and the prices of its long-term contracts.
The Forum expressed its deep concern about attempts to change the gas pricing mechanism, manage market performance risks, and impose price ceilings for political motives.
The European Union is pushing the Group of Seven to set a ceiling for natural gas prices in an attempt to lower prices on the one hand and add pressure on Russian gas globally.
-Advertisement-
The meeting affirmed that “these interventions in market performance can exacerbate its bottleneck, frustrate investments and harm both producers and consumers alike.”
Forum members include Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela, and observers from Angola, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Malaysia, Mozambique, Norway, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates.
-Advertisement-
According to the statement, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said, “We are meeting today at this critical time, when all global efforts are directed towards achieving a triple goal of energy, which is security, sustainability and abundance of energy.”
He added, “Natural gas is the cleanest hydrocarbon fuel and is seen as the best solution to achieve this balance, which will continue to play an important role in the future of the energy mix.”
The meeting noted that the lack of investments since 2015 due to the drop in natural gas prices and misleading calls to stop investing in its projects resulted in an imbalance in supply and demand.
-Advertisement-
The forum expected that the market bottleneck will continue in the medium term as most of the new projects will be put into production after 2025.
