OSAKA, Japan, 24 September — The headquarters of the International Energy Forum’s general secretariat will be established in Riyadh, Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi announced yesterday.
"The participants at the eighth International Energy Forum have unanimously agreed to establish the headquarters in Riyadh," the minister said..
Prince Abdullah, the regent, made the proposal to host the forum’s secretariat while inaugurating the forum’s seventh conference in Riyadh in 2000.
The minister said petroleum and gas would remain two principal sources of energy in the 21st century. "Oil and gas meet 70 to 80 percent of energy needs," he added.
Naimi said the forum’s secretariat would play a major role in organizing future energy forums.
"The establishment of the forum’s secretariat in Riyadh is a great honor for the Kingdom," the minister said, adding that the approval came after Riyadh’s efforts to convince 70 countries to support the proposal.
Asked about the measures to be taken by the Kingdom after the Osaka announcement, Naimi said the Kingdom had allocated necessary funds to build the secretariat’s headquarters at a suitable location.
He said the secretariat would organize future energy forums and would play an important role in updating and distributing energy-related information.
"A large number of countries are now taking part in energy conferences, sending high-ranking officials," he pointed out.
He said the energy forum, which concluded its deliberations yesterday, had discussed major topics including demand and supply, ensuring energy supply at world markets, price stability, and just oil prices.
"The conference also focused on investments in the areas of oil production and excavation, development of oil and gas fields and effect of oil and gas on environment," he said. Naimi said the objective of holding energy forums was exchange of views between oil producing and consuming countries.
Seham Al-Rezzouqi, director of financial, administrative and international relations affairs at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, said her country had strongly supported the Kingdom’s proposal, adding that the secretariat would promote dialogue between oil producers and consumers.
Rezzouqi, who heads the Kuwaiti delegation to the conference, said the energy forum would facilitate debate on various issues related to oil production and market stability which will be of interest to both consumers and producers. The first international energy forum was held in Paris in 1991.
