TEHRAN -- The 11th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) ministerial meeting will kick off in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.

Ratifying the 2011 budget, officially opening of the forum’s secretariat, studying the global market and developing a 5-year strategic plan will be discussed in the meeting, SHANA news agency reported.
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which has been called the ‘gas OPEC’, groups together some of the world’s leading gas producers.
The energy ministers of the member countries approved the charter of the organization in the 7th GECF ministerial meeting in Moscow on December 23, 2008.
The GECF was established in Tehran in 2001. Until the seventh ministerial meeting in Moscow, it operated without a charter or fixed membership structure.
The GECF has agreed to establish its headquarters in Doha, Qatar, the world’s biggest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas.
The forum’s current members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Kazakhstan (observer), Libya, Netherlands (observer), Nigeria, Norway (observer), Qatar, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela.
Gas producers face the challenge of shaping a market, as 70% of gas is sent by pipeline to regional consumers and no global benchmark price exists on an exchange.
Russia, Qatar, and Iran combined own 53.2% of the world’s gas reserves. Russia has the world’s largest reserves, followed by Iran, Qatar, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia