News

H.E. Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance, Minister in Charge of Oil and Gas Affairs participated in the Ministerial Meeting of the Petroleum Cooperation Committee of the Gulf Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States (GCC), which was held in the State of Kuwait on Thursday, September 11, 2014.

The meeting discussed a number of topics on the agenda, primarily the Secretariat Memo on the possibility of unified petroleum products pricing for the GCC countries. The meeting tasked the GCC energy team to look into the GCC interest in the global context and prepare a report on the possibility of unifying oil price. The group looked into a report on the meetings between the head of the GCC energy Team with his European Union counterpart, stressing the importance of similar future meetings to exchange views on related subjects.

Topics discussed also included a Secretariat memo on the meetings of the GCC Specialist Oil Committees, which aim to activate the mechanisms of implementing the objectives of the Petroleum Communication Strategy, and another on the fourth Draft Uniform Regulation Law for Consolidated Mining for the GCC, and the Secretariat’s note on public meetings about the GCC Energy Affairs Team for World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreements, where the emphasis was on continued coordination of GCC positions on related topics.

The meeting also reviewed a Secretariat memo on the GCC Emergency Plan meeting for regional petroleum products, where the importance of updating the data and holding a workshop for modelling the emergency plan was stressed, and the mechanisms of activating cooperation between the GCC national oil companies were discussed. The group also looked into the report of the Chairman of the working group for follow ups on developments in the GCC countries on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The Ministers were also briefed on the ongoing preparations for the GCC Petroleum Media Forum which will be held in Riyadh under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from March 22 to 24, 2015.

The GCC Ministerial Meeting was preceded by the preparatory meeting of a Committee of the GCC Ministries of Petroleum representatives held on Wednesday, September 10, 2014.

The Minister was accompanied by a National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) delegation consisting of Dr. Ahmed Ali Al Sharyan, the NOGA Secretary-General, Mr. Ali Abdul Jabbar Al Sawad, General Manager of Strategies and Planning, and Mr. Faihan Mohammed Faihani, Director of Oil Policies and Statistics, Ms Ezz Al Mannai, Head of Oil Policies and Mr. Mohamed Fouad Sater, Principal Coordinator and Follow-up Specialist to the Minister’s Office.