AKIPRESS.COM - President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov will travel to Tehran to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum as a guest of honor, reports IRNA.

The Presidents of Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Russia, and Venezuela have confirmed their participation in the event.

Previous GECF gas summits were held in Qatar in 2011 and in Moscow in 2013.

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).