SHANA --Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Yury Sentyurin met with Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh in his Tehran officer on Saturday to discuss the latest gas market developments.

Sentyurin, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, briefed Mr. Zangeneh about the body's future plans and agendas.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is an international governmental organization which provides the framework for exchanging experience and information among Member Countries. GECF is a gathering of the world’s leading gas producers and was set up as international governmental organization with the objective to increase the level of coordination and strengthen the collaboration among Member countries.

GECF also seeks to build a mechanism for a more meaningful dialogue between gas producers and gas consumers for the sake of stability and security of supply and demand in global natural gas markets.

In accordance with the GECF Statute, the organization is aiming to support the sovereign rights of its Members over their natural gas resources and their abilities to develop, preserve and use such resources for the benefit of their peoples, through the exchange of experience, views, information and coordination in gas-related matters.

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. Azerbaijan, 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 Forum highly values this potential of its Member Countries and Observer Members, and at the same time is looking forward to further increase in their numbers and welcomes new members that share the common interests and objectives of the Forum’s Statute.