Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Algeria Rejects “Price Ceiling”

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), which was held in Algiers on Saturday, rejected setting a politically motivated price ceiling.

The forum considered that the price ceiling “exacerbates the restrictions on markets and discourages investments necessary to meet the growing global demand for energy.”

The "Algiers Declaration", which culminated in the 7th summit of GECF, rejected "all unilateral economic restrictions taken, without the prior approval of the United Nations Security Council, and any extraterritorial application of national laws and regulations against the member states of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which affects the development and trade of natural gas and poses a threat to the security of natural gas supplies."

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum includes 12 permanent members: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the UAE, and Venezuela, as well as 7 observer members: Angola, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Peru.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum also expressed its rejection of any use of climate change as a justification for enforcing measures that hinder investments in natural gas projects, and for introducing any means of arbitrary discrimination, or any convincing restrictions that directly violate the rules of international trade.

According to energy experts that Bloomberg spoke to, the forum raised the issue of protecting gas facilities against the backdrop of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, the current crisis in the Red Sea due to the Israeli war on Gaza, and the impact of all of this on the transportation of gas shipments.

Regarding the future of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline Project, the Algerian Minister of Energy Mohamed Arkab confirmed that all parties are ready to complete the project, which is a 4,000 km long pipeline from Abuja to the coast of Algeria, to export Nigerian gas.