Natural gas with its “clean premium” has greater relevance at a time when the world’s attention was focused on fighting climate change, HE the Minister of Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, said in Doha yesterday.
The demand for natural gas would have grown 1.6% by the year-end, although at a slower pace than in 2015, when it grew 1.9%, al-Sada said at the opening session of the 18th Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
Natural gas demand in 2014 grew at 0.8%, he pointed out.
The supply side developments, however, are shaping new dynamics and trends in the markets and, as a result, are set to create a new environment of competitiveness, al-Sada said.
“It is, indeed, a time to encourage closer exchange of views and experiences among us in order to explore ways of possible co-operation and co-ordination as core value of the forum’s strategy,” al-Sada said. 
Since the last GECF meeting in Tehran, the global gas market developments have been changing the dynamics of the market even in a more rapid way than before. 
“As we are meeting here in Doha, COP22 is also taking place in Marrakech. The global commitment to fight climate change is gaining momentum even more and faster than expected.  The COP21 targets became legally binding early this month,” the minister said.  
However, he said more nations were yet to join and more efforts have to be made to reach the target of keeping the global warming within 2C above pre-industrial levels and make every effort to limit average temperature increase to 1.5C. “It is exactly in this context that we, as the gas exporting countries, should take the opportunity to present the case of gas as the fuel of choice and as a source of energy that can contribute to the above cause, the most.  We believe that gas with its clean premium is to play a major role if it is well appreciated and not discriminated by regulations and policies.
“I am of the opinion that gas will benefit from the global environmental movement and will help lower CO2 emissions and create cleaner air with much less pollution as it is the only practical and available bridge today to a low-carbon future.  We should take it seriously and plan for it.”
Al-Sada said the 18th ministerial meeting was taking place at a time of transitional changes in the energy market in general and gas market in particular.  These changes are bringing both opportunities and challenges for all gas exporting countries.  
The 18th ministerial meeting, he said, was a special one for two reasons. First, the global energy market situation and second, the preparation of two important documents that have been made ready for our attention, namely, the ‘GECF Long Term Strategy’ and the ‘GECF Global Gas Outlook 2040’.
The Long Term Strategy defines the organisation’s vision, mission, strategic goals and long-term priority objectives. It also includes key strategic instruments and initiatives to successfully achieve each of its priority objectives.  
The adoption of this document is very important at this stage as this is going to be the first GECF Long term strategy that will pave the way ahead of us for the years to come. 
The GECF Outlook is the “first such independent effort from the perspective of reliable producers,” al-Sada added.