Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja 

President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja Friday to participate in the 5th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

He will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite; and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kolo Kyari.

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According to Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu in a statement, apart from President Buhari, the one-day meeting will be attended by leaders of major gas producing nations of the world namely, Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Bolivia, Iran, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Norway, whose countries account for 70 per cent and 80 per cent of global gas reserves and production respectively.

“The idea of the GECF was first mooted in 2001 when the first ministerial meeting held in Tehran, Iran, while the first GECF otherwise called Gas Summit, took place in Doha, Qatar in 2011 with Nigeria represented at the highest level. Indeed, President Buhari had attended the third gas summit in Tehran in November 2015. This 5th Gas Summit in Malabo is the first time the biennial meeting will be hosted in Africa.”