In a great gathering of the oil producers and consumers around the world, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz will inaugurate here on next Saturday the headquarters of the International Energy Forum Secretariat, the event which crowns the initiative of King Abdullah, in 2000, to set up a permanent secretariat for the IEF.
A large number of oil and energy ministers, as well as heads of international oil companies will attend the ceremony and the symposium.
The headquarters is a suitable mechanism for the IEFS to carry out its duties in achieving excellent dialogue between oil producers and consumers.
The General Secretariat is an essential step to determine the direction of the dialogue, to ensure credibility for issues which have a positive impact on oil market stability and to stir up the international economy in general and in the development world in particular through a reliable database, which will be provided by the Secretariat. Along with the inauguration, a high level symposium will be held to discuss energy issues which have a great impact on the stability of world economy, with sustained growth track.
Difficulties facing oil industry will also be discussed, as well as the impact of high fuel taxes in the consuming countries.
The role of companies and bodies, which speculate about the oil market and then blame the producers will also be discussed.
Other subjects for discussion will be oil projects related to organic energy and the possibility of increasing production capacity in times of extreme demand. The symposium will not be limited to discussing matters relating to oil situation, but it will look forward to charting a road map for the future of the industry by using the technological revolution to serve the world economy.
In this context, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Engineer Ali bin Ibrahim Alnaimi praised the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' patronization of the opening ceremony and the symposium, which sets the bases for permanent regular dialogue between the two tycoons, industry and market consumers and producers, along with mediating bodies such as companies, and relevant organization represented in this Secretariat.
Alnaimi pointed to the far sighted initiative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques when he called for the necessity to set up a permanent headquarters for the Secretariat five years ago.
The participants in the opening ceremony and the symposium are the oil and gas ministers of Bahrain, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Qatar, UAE, UK, and US.
The organizations will be represented by the Acting Secretary General of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Dr. Adnan Shehabudeen, the European Commissioner for Energy, Andryas Beblqas and the Director of International Agency for Energy. Presidents of Total, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch/Shell Company, Nepon Oil Company, Head of the Technology in BP, Vice President of Chevron, George Kirkland and Vice President of Kuwaiti Oil Company, Hani Abdulaziz Hussein, will represent companies.
Concluding his statement, Alnaimi lauded the critical impetus played by the Secretariat since its foundation in 2004, in promoting dialogue between consumers and producers.
In fact, the Saudi oil diplomacy played an important role in translating the initiative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, which called for establishing the General Secretariat, into reality by starting objective discussions with all bodies to encourage them and convince them to approve the Secretariat's main statute during the eighth session, which was held in Osaka in Japan in September 2002, which ended with issuing the historical document, the Osaka declaration.
The General Secretariat is similar to a compass which sets directions and controls the pace of dialogue and insures its regularity in its permanent institutional form. It is a neutral arbitration which works on reconciling two different opinions and sowing confidence in the organized dialogue for the stability of the energy market, then gives impetus to international growth and activates its continuity and distances the growing economies from burden of fluctuations storming the market.
It has also set up the transparencies criteria and credibility as its stable ground since its foundation and has recorded important participations on more than one level in the international arena related to energy.
The General Secretariat is in its final stage to build a huge informational database for the benefit of different industrial, market, scientific research fields and making decisions.
Saudi Arabia believed in dialogue between consumers and producers and backed its position by granting a piece of land in the diplomatic quarter for the building of the Secretariat.
Its royal gift was followed by paying the cost of building it in an area of 3,000 square meters, with some other areas of 224 square meters completely equipped.
The building contains a library and a conference hall completely equipped with modern sets and it can accommodates more than 100 participants. It has beautiful green areas designed in a fantastic geometric coordination.
