�TEHRAN, Nov. 23 (Shana) � The Third Summit Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) opened here on Monday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the chair.

Nine heads of state and government of the 19-member body are attending the event, the first summit level meeting after the nuclear Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA) was agreed between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers last July in Vienna.

Presidents of Iraq, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Bolivia, Nigeria, Russia, and Venezuela and prime minister of Algeria are leading top-ranking delegations to the Tehran summit. Also secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and secretary general of the International Energy Forum (IEF) are taking part in the meeting.

The heads of state and government of GECF member countries are going to issue the Tehran Declaration on the forum�s outlook regarding the gas market industry and will also send a message to the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) to be held in Paris next week.
Previous GECF gas summits were held in Qatar in 2011 and in Moscow in 2013. In the run-up to the third summit, the ministerial and expert-level meetings were held on Friday and Saturday in Tehran.

GECF Secretary General Mohammad Hossein Adeli, who was re-elected for a second two-year term, presented the report of the two TEC meetings held during 2015, the progress report about the completion of the Global Gas Model as well as the Outlook and the perspective of the market up to 2040 and the market trends in the medium and long term�progress report about development and preparation of the long term strategy was also submitted to the Ministers.
The meeting also approved the Republic of Azerbaijan as the new Observer Member of the GECF.

GECF is the gathering of the world�s leading gas producers that provides a framework for exchange of experience, views, information and data, as well as coordination in gas related developments among member countries.
It consists of 19 main and observer members with its permanent secretariat based in Doha, Qatar.

Iran, Russia, Qatar, Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates, are main members of the gas exporting body. Observer countries are the Netherlands, Iraq, Oman, Azerbaijan, Peru, Kazakhstan and Norway.

GECF members account for 42 percent of global gas output, 70 percent of global gas reserves, 40 percent of pipe gas transmission, and 65 percent of global trade of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

By SHANA