Moscow gas summit to ensure global energy stability: Russia

An upcoming summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) will focus on ensuring global energy stability, Kremlin said Friday.

The GECF groups Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Venezuela, with Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway as observer members.

"Balancing of demand and supply, global energy stability and security as a whole depend on coordinated actions of the forum's member states," reported Xinhua citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the two-day summit, starting Monday, would come as "shale revolution" in the US had been changing the geography of gas supplies and increasing competition between gas and coal energy sources. A ministerial level meeting is to take place Saturday.

Also Friday, GECF secretary general Leonid Bokhanovsky said the member states would insist on linking gas prices to oil products and on keeping long-term contracts as a priority. "We believe the long-term contracts stabilise the market and lower volatility."