Latin American states to take part in highest level in GECF

Deputy Minister of Oil for International and Commercial Affairs Amir Hossein Zamani Nia said that he extended the invitation of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for his counterpart to take part in the event to the Foreign Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Winston Dookeran on Tuesday. According to the official, the foreign minister said his president is to attend the meeting. Zamani Nia had already said that presidents of Bolivia and Peru too will visit Iran on the occasion. Zamaninia said that Trinidad and Tobago and Bolivia will take part in the event as main members of the GECF and Peru as an observer state in the 3rd Conference of Gas Exporting Countries Forum. The 3rd Summit Conference of the GECF is scheduled to be be held in Tehran in late November, 2015. The deputy oil minister said that Holland will be the second observer country to participate in the GECF Tehran Summit. This is while the Public Relations Office of the Oil Ministry has announced that so far invitation letters have been sent to ten gas exporting countries and the invitations of the rest will be forwarded in the course of the upcoming week. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is a gathering of the world's leading gas producers which was set up as an international governmental organization with the objective of increasing the level of coordination and strengthening the collaboration among Member countries. The Member countries of the Forum are: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru have the status of Observer Members. With the current number of Members, the GECF has a strong position on the world gas market and among international energy organizations. Its potential rests on the enormous natural gas reserves of the Member Countries all together accumulating 67% of the world proven natural gas reserves. The GECF member countries in October, 2013 elected Seyyed Mohammad Adeli from Iran as their second secretary general. Adeli is the first Iranian citizen who has become the top official of such an important international economic forum, IRNA reports.