OREANDA-NEWS. November 25, 2008. Vienna hosted today the First Ministerial Forum organized by the mutual initiative of the International Energy Forum and the International Gas Union for the purpose of discussing the issues of the gas market globalization at the level of energy ministers and CEOs from leading gas companies.

The Forum, which assembled experts from all of the five continents, was attended by Chakib Khelil, Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines, OPEC President, Martin Bartenstein, Austrian Federal Minister of Economics and Labor, Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy, Maria van der Hoeven, Netherlands Minister of Economic Affairs, Mohammed Saleh Al-Sada, Qatari Minister of State for Energy & Industry Affairs, high-ranked representatives of specialized ministries from the majority of leading natural gas producing and exporting countries, largest energy companies (Gazprom, CNPC, GDF, SUEZ, E.ON, Ruhrgas, BP, ENI, Qatar Petroleum, Sonatrach, StatoilHydro, Total, Gasunie, OMV etc.), leading experts from international R&D institutes and establishments (the French Petroleum Institute, IEA, World Energy Council, Commission for Energy Regulation etc.).

Stanislav Tsygankov, Head of the Gazprom International Business Department presented a speech at the Partnership and Cooperation in a Global Gas Market Forum Session.

The speaker drew the participants’ attention to the regional markets development problems (in particular, the European market), of which the key ones still are the absence of stable rules for market players as well as the contradictory signals sent by the European Union leadership to gas producers beyond Europe in respect of the EU’s import demand for this energy carrier in the mid term. This situation calls for developing a dialogue between producers, thus enabling them to jointly defend their standpoint concerning the most significant issues of the present gas market and its development prospects.

“We hope we will manage to finally develop an efficient scheme of interaction between energy producers and consumers that will allow stabilizing the market and promoting the achievement of real energy security,” stated Stanislav Tsygankov.