President Rouhani addressed the summit on Monday in the opening ceremony where he said that the GECF was definitely the most important event in energy and gas industry; “the summit seeks to find mechanisms to provide support to its member states and help them in discovering, gas production, coordination of policies in energy consumption of the world, and boosting the status of the member states,” Rouhani told the meeting.
“An unsustainable use of the fossil fuels poses grave issues of the environment pollution; any use of this energy should be sustainable. During the Sustainable Development Summit held in New York City where it approved the 17 proposed Sustainable Development Goals, energy was seen as a serious international challenge in the future to come,” Mr. Rouhani asserted. “Natural gas, as a clean energy and with ample reservoirs to be extracted in the next decades will contribute the lion’s share to world energy consumption; the relative economic and environmental advantage, and technical ease with extraction has set it as topping the list of available fuels.”
“Predictably, natural gas will be consumed more and more in upcoming decades; all countries, especially developing countries, believe that natural gas would provide a reliable bridge for a desirable transition from the era of fossil fuels to a different era where renewable energies contribute more to the total consumption,” he addressed the meeting. “Energy markets are inherently dynamic and gas markets are no exception to this rule; this dynamism has been fed by technological advances and innovations in gas supply and diversity of gas sources such as conventional gas, shale gas, and alternative fuels, with changes in demand side such as innovations in the way gas is used in electricity generation, transportation, and chemical industries contributing as well,” he added, which he believed was the major driving force behind the necessity of adopting a broader vista on the issue by the GECF, to draw their future roadmap to improve their role in providing the world with energy security.
Rouhani also believed that well-organized cooperation based on mutual understanding by GECF member states about regional gas markets provided the foundations of long-term constructive interaction, and would bring about optimized using of limited energy resources in a more economic manner; “in an environment of interaction of countries with shared direction and interests which was founded by member states 15 years ago, single country’s interests are not necessarily to the expense of other member states; rather, collective interest could be met through a unified strategy and dividing the benefits among member states,” Rouhani emphasized.
Rouhani then turned to Iran’s context; “with rapid developments in gas production in Iranian fields in past two years, exports of gas to our neighbors have been possible through pipelines and LNG as well; the government encourages international investments in Iranian oil and gas as providing attractions to potential investors,” he told the meeting. He also congratulated joining of a new member to GECF, Republic of Azerbaijan as the 19th member of the organization.
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