Energy, being the fundamental ingredient of economic and social development, continues to top the political agenda of every country in the world in the sense that, energy resources are limited and distributed unevenly in the world, while demand is continuously rising as populations grow and economic growth sustains.

Given this global situation, hydrocarbons will continue to be the fuel of choice for decades to come, but their development and production have entered a new phase. Reserves are large but finite, operations in new areas are becoming even more technically complex, and non-conventional hydrocarbons will form a larger part of the production base in the future.

It is obvious that the Middle East, North Africa and CIS regions with their vast oil and gas reserves, comprising the two thirds of the remaining oil and gas reserves of the World, will be the centre of gravity for future balancing of the supply-demand pendulum and will play the leading role in global oil and gas supply security.

Geopolitics steered by globalization and long term interests, will yield long-term strategic partnerships and co-operations. Both producers and consumers will have an impact on shaping the future and regional stability should strongly be supported. Limited energy sources of countries and increase in consumption have led the “self-sufficient energy” strategy of the countries to become “the development of international trade and regional integrations” strategy. Therefore energy trade is expanding rapidly, increasing mutual interdependence among countries and regions. Hence regional and inter-regional co-operation strengthens the global energy policy interrelationship in the energy world.

While energy markets around the world are more open now to trade, competition, and foreign investment than at any time in history, questions regarding market liberalization, transparency, and security of supply are pulling markets in the other direction. Competing forces seem to pit producers against consumers, development against sustainability, competition against regulation, and national issues against transparency. The solution is, to establish the economic linkages that connect producing countries to consumers increasing co-operation and creating a more stable, sustainable international environment.

For accessing and securing energy a well established and consistent co-operation among countries is needed. Governments must act decisively to accelerate the actions for this co-operation. Co-operative international research and development can promote effective energy policy and lay the groundwork for technology breakthroughs in clean, distributed energy sources that can benefit populations in the developing world.

In this context, the International Energy Forum (IEF) can encourage international dialogue and co-operation between energy consuming and energy producing countries by deepening dialogue among those involved in energy affairs, as well as enhancing transparency among governments by creating common energy databases. The Forum can also contribute to global energy security by converging producers’ and consumers’ policies to establish a win-win situation for both parties. Facilitating discussions on global energy security and encouraging producers and consumers to recognise the commonality of their interests is the only way of sustaining global economic growth, and the IEF is and will be expected to work towards achieving this goal.