GECF gas bank to support industry projects with financing, consulting, business solutions - Russian Energy Minister

MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax) - A gas bank will support industry projects through financing, consulting, and business solutions, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev told reporters.

A ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) took place in Moscow on Monday, with a GECF summit scheduled for Tuesday. Participants are discussing the establishment of a bank designed to support gas projects within GECF member countries.

"We are promoting an initiative to create a Gas Bank," Tsivilev noted in a conversation with reporters on Monday. "Establishing such an institution would provide a long-term financing instrument for the development of gas infrastructure on the African continent and elsewhere," he explained.

"The Gas Bank could serve as a driver for the development of the global energy market by offering countries not only financial products, but also advisory support and business solutions from major market players," Tsivilev said.

The GECF is an international intergovernmental organization. The agreement governing the GECF's operations entered into force on September 30, 2009. The full members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Russia has been a full member of the GECF since 2009.

Summits of the heads of state and government of the forum's member countries, high-level meetings, have been convened every two years since 2011.