Mauritania becomes observer member at Gas Exporting Countries Forum

Mauritania has acquired observer member status from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), a grouping which collectively accounts for 70% of global natural gas reserves and 42% of marketed natural gas.

The ministry of Energy, Mines and Oil of the African country made the announcement Tuesday October 10 on the sidelines of the 25th GECF meeting held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

The GECF is made of 19 countries including Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE, and Venezuela.

The ministry said in a statement that the GECF membership enshrines the government’s vision for the rational and responsible exploitation of gas resources and the role Mauritania could play in the new energy transformation.

The country was the guest country of the ministerial Summit. Mauritania is set to start production Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at “Grand Tortue Ahmeyime (GTA)” project in Q1 next year. GTA is a joint maritime gas project between Mauritania, Senegal and British Petrolium (BP).

BP owns 56 per cent of project. Both Mauritania and Senegal signed an inter-government co-operation agreement in February 2018, which provided for the development of the cross-border gas project with each country sharing resources and revenues on a 50/50 basis. They also granted GTA the status of ‘National Project of Strategic Importance’ in July 2021, Offshore-Technology reports.