More than 60% of the global energy portfolio will be supplied by fossil fuels by next year

According to Energy Press, Iran’s hosting of the 26th Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which began yesterday (December 6) and will end tomorrow (December 8) with a ministerial meeting, provided an opportunity to have a historical overview of the philosophy of the formation of the forum from the beginning to the present day in a conversation with Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli, former Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, and to see the developments in the gas trade over recent decades from his perspective.
Adeli, who served as Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum from 2013 to 2017, believes that during Iran’s term as Secretary General, GECF entered the global gas market by presenting a global gas-based energy model and had an impact on this market.
He emphasized that before the Iranian Secretary General, the label of GECF being a cartel was so strong that some large international companies were afraid to attend the meetings of the forum for fear of being sued, but during the term of the Iranian Secretary General, the atmosphere was gradually broken. Adeli believes that by 2050, more than 60 percent of the global energy portfolio will be supplied by fossil fuels.
You can read the interview of Iran Petroleum Monthly with Mohammad Hossein Adeli, former Secretary General of GECF, which was held on the occasion of the 26th Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Tehran below.
How did the Gas Exporting Countries Forum come into being?
The idea of ​​establishing a gathering of gas exporting countries as a forum in line with their common interests began when gas was considered an international fuel. In fact, gas energy was considered a domestic fuel until a certain point (perhaps around the 1980s), which gradually became an international fuel and commodity with the development of world trade, with the main exporters of this commodity being Russia and a few African countries such as Algeria and Nigeria.
At that time, there was no discussion about forming a union or group to export this commodity, but after the energy crises in the 1980s, as well as various issues such as sanctions on Iran, etc., in the late 1990s, the idea was raised that gas exporting countries such as Iran, Russia, and Qatar (a fledgling exporting country at the time) form this complex.
Iran had started exporting gas to Turkey and was interested in developing and expanding it to different countries. In fact, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, given Iran’s economic boom, there was an idea that Iran should become an energy hub and gas should be included as one of the important commodities that could be partners in this hub. Meanwhile, major exporting countries such as Russia and Qatar also welcomed the idea. Later, other countries such as Malaysia, Bolivia, Indonesia and Brunei, which had limited gas exports, joined the forum. Finally, six countries met in Tehran in 2001.
At the same meeting, the preliminary details of this issue were discussed and the idea took shape, and in 2003, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was formalized with a statement. However, it took about eight years for these countries to reach the conclusion that the forum should be transformed into an international energy organization like OPEC and the International Energy Agency, which was practically finalized in 2010 and registered as an international organization, and with the formation of its secretariat in Doha, Qatar, its Secretary General was determined and its statutes were prepared.
Countries applying for membership had to approve the application in their parliaments and allocate a budget for it. Thus, the organized activity of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum began in 2010 with the first Secretary General from Russia.