"The Riyadh-based International Energy Forum (IEF) together with several energy-related local, regional and international organizations will participate in OPEC's 50th anniversary celebrations," said Noe van Hulst, IEF secretary general, who will deliver a speech at the symposium.

Saudi Arabia is a major member of the 12-member organization with Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE and Venezuela. OPEC, which has its secretariat in Vienna, is a permanent intergovernmental organization.

In an interview here on Tuesday, van Hulst said that a few other major energy events would take place within the next few months from now besides OPEC's golden jubilee celebrations. To this end, he noted that an important energy event, to be held in London on Nov. 22 and 23, will focus on how the physical and financial markets for energy interact and how to regulate the energy market. The event is being organized jointly by the IEF, OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

This London meeting, he said, was "extremely important keeping in view the recent events in the oil sector like the oil price volatility that we have seen in 2008." "These events taught a lesson that oil is not just a physical commodity nowadays, but a financial asset,” he added. Hence, the meeting in London will help to improve the understanding of the inter-linkages between the physical and financial markets for energy, added the IEF chief.

He made a significant remark while saying that the publication of different reports about energy outlook creates "additional uncertainties" among market players. So, there is a joint challenge to ensure consistency and commonality in the reports, he added. He said that a joint meeting of IEF, IAE and OPEC will take place in Riyadh on Jan. 24 to better understand why the outlooks are different. “And hopefully, we will be able to better explain why they are different that will help in reducing the volatility,” he said.

“Moreover, it is extremely important that there is now in place this kind of new cooperation between these organizations that can help to combat market volatility,” said van Hulst. He pointed out that the joint move by the IEF, OPEC and IEA will tackle volatility of the oil price, while enabling them to share data to improve transparency and to provide better and more accurate information to the global energy market. But then, there is also a growing concern for “energy efficiency,” said the IEF chief.

He further called on all energy producing and consuming countries to limit their consumption and give high priority to the issue of energy efficiency. He said that IEF would organize a forum on energy efficiency early next year. “We need to pay a lot of attention to this issue … even in the Middle East, if the domestic energy demand is increasing so rapidly, then it will eventually limit the export potentials of oil producing countries at a certain stage,” he warned.

Asked about other oil and gas events to be organized in the near future; the IEF chief pointed out that a G20 workshop on energy security will be held in Riyadh on Oct. 17. This is in addition to another major ministerial gas forum to be organized by the IEF and the International Gas Union in Doha on Nov. 30. The IEF is the world's largest gathering of energy ministers. The IEF countries account for more than 90 percent of global oil and gas production and consumption.