With the confirmation of Azeri and Turkmen presidents’ participation in the summit meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) to be held in Tehran on November 22, it is expected that the forum’s members will rise to 19 states. According to Shana, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev whose gas and oil rich countries are not GECF members will take part in the summit with the guest status. Presidents of Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia, and Venezuela and Alegerian premier are going to participate in the event. In addition to heads of state and government from 17 permanent and observer countries and guests, general secretaries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and International Energy Forum (IEF) have confirmed their participation in the third summit meeting. The GECF is the gathering of the world’s leading gas producers that provides a framework for exchange of experience, views, information and data, as well as coordination in gas related developments among member countries. It consists of 17 main and observer members with its permanent secretariat positioned in Doha, Qatar. Russia, Iran, Qatar, Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates, are main members of the gas exporting body. Observer countries are the Netherlands, Iraq, Oman, Peru and Norway. GECF members account for 42 percent of global gas output, 70 percent of global gas reserves, 40 percent of pipe gas transmission, and 65 percent of global trade of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). On Friday, ministers from Nigeria, Algerian and Trinidad arrived to take part in the ministerial meetings as the Fourth Meeting of High Level Ad Hoc Group (HLAHG4) as well as the Executive Board (EB) Meeting opened to discuss internal and procedural issues. Following the HLHAG4 and EB, the 17th Ordinary Ministerial Meeting will be chaired by Nigeria and the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting will be presided by Iran on Saturday (Nov. 21). Earlier in the day, the Ordinary Ministerial Meeting takes place with the Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the chair to discuss the internal issues on the agenda such as budget and election of secretary general. Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh will preside over the proceedings of the ministerial meeting in afternoon which will draft the final declaration and the gas summit’s agenda slated for Monday. On Sunday (Nov. 22), simultaneous to arrival of the heads of state/government and ministers, delegates will work on documentation of the summit meeting. And on Monday (Nov. 23), the 3rd GECF Gas Summit will be held to discuss market outlook and strategy while dignitaries take the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the working sessions. Previous GECF gas summits were held in Qatar in 2011 and in Moscow in 2013.