Oil Minister Javad Owji left Tehran on Sunday to accompany President Ebrahim Raisi to attend the Sixth Summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum planned in Doha, Qatar, on 22 February.
Russia, Iran and Qatar are key members of the forum that will also hold two days of ministerial meetings, the Oil Ministry’s news portal reported.
The GECF Summit provides an opportunity for leaders to interact and exchange their experience, views and information, and coordinate gas-related matters, such as recent developments, trends and policies.
It is also an opportunity to reaffirm their support to the forum’s objectives at the highest level.
Prior to leaving Tehran, the minister noted that despite difficulties, including sanctions, geostrategic challenges and the coronavirus plague, Iran has made noticeable progress in its energy sector.
“Relying on domestic human resources, knowhow and investment, we have reached a sustainable production level of 1 billion cubic meters of gas per day,” Owji said.
“Almost 95% of the total 85 million population in Iran have access to piped gas.”
According to the oil minister, natural gas, which is an indispensable part of the global energy mix, can play a key role to help the world shift to a lower carbon energy future and protect the environment.
“The high use of fossil fuels like coal and crude oil without measures to mitigate greenhouse gases has had global climate change implications,” he said, adding that natural gas is needed to limit the impact.
Nonetheless, countries like Iran, which are blessed with an abundance of underground resources such as natural gas, cannot fully contribute to climate change mitigation and disaster risk reduction unless they have the knowhow to tap into their low carbon energy resources more effectively.
“As long as the US unilateral sanctions are in place, developed countries will not be willing to transfer their knowhow to Iran and we will have to tap into eco-unfriendly fuels like mazut that is to the detriment of the world,” Owji said.
Curtail Greenhouse Gases
Efforts to curtail greenhouse gases and lower carbon emissions will not yield the desired result unless developed countries share their high technology with developing states that have access to clean sources of energy, such as natural gas.
Despite difficulties, including geostrategic challenges and the coronavirus pandemic, Iran has made noticeable progress in its natural gas industry in line with Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
The goal is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all to help open opportunities for people through economic opportunities and jobs, better education and health, more sustainable, equitable and inclusive communities, and greater protections from, and resilience to, climate change.
“In a warming world largely fueled by non-renewable fuels, challenges related to energy are becoming increasingly complex and as long as energy is used as a political tool to suppress certain countries, the future of world energy will look decidedly gloomy,” the oil minister said.
Owji said despite all odds, including the Covid-19 pandemic that slowed global economic growth and international tensions, better days lie ahead for GECF and other gas producers.
“In the last four years, the international community has experienced a big blow to its efforts to expand effective cooperation, multilateralism, sustainable development and to a certain extent, globalization,” he added.
He stressed that the materialization of the lofty goals of GECF demands meaningful cooperation, coordination and an apolitical energy environment.
Natural gas has emerged as the most favored fossil fuel in recent years, accounting for 45% of the rise in energy consumption in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency.
The gas organization includes the world's biggest gas exporters – Russia, Qatar and Iran – and holds around 60% of the world's proven gas reserves.
Although often referred to as "Gas OPEC”, the forum is more of an advisory body rather than one that takes collective policy action.
