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The International Energy Forum Charter

International Energy Forum Charter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jorge Kamine
Jorge Kamine*
Affiliation:
Special thanks to Karen Abbott from the Energy and Infrastructure Projects group at Skadden for her research assistance
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Extract

On February 22, 2011, the Energy Ministers and representatives of eighty-six countries, including energy producers, consumers, and transit countries, met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for an Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the International Energy Forum (‘‘IEF’’) where they approved and signed a new charter for the IEF (‘‘IEF Charter’’). The IEF Charter creates an ‘‘enhanced IEF framework to sustain and reinforce the commitment of producer and consumer states to the informal dialogue’’ promoted through the IEF process.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 198 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2011

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References

* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at International Energy Forum website (visited Jan. 26, 2012) http://www.ief.org/whatsnew/Documents/IEF%20Charter.pdf.

1 Azerbaijan became a member country on July 5, 2011. A complete list of the International Energy Forum member countries is available at http://www.ief.org/Pages/about.aspx.

2 Int’l Energy Forum [IEF], Ministerial Declaration of 31 March 2010, at 4, available at http://www.ief.org/Events/Documents/CANCUN%20MINISTERIAL%20DECLARATION.pdf.

3 The Charter includes a mission statement, criteria for membership, basic governance, and required financial commitments by members.

4 The purpose of the IEF Charter is to foster informal, nonbinding dialogue and cooperation between energy producing and consuming countries.

5 Bassam, Fattouh & Coby van der, Linde, The International Energy Forum: Twenty Years of Producer-consumer Dialogue in a Changing World 59-60 (Deborah Sherwood ed., IEF 2011), available at http://www.ief.org/whatsnew/Documents/IEFHistoryBook.pdf Google Scholar.

6 Id. at 60-61.

7 Id. at 57-58.

8 Id. at 133-37.

9 In 2008, oil prices hit nearly U.S. $150 per barrel only to fall to approximately U.S. $40 per barrel by the end of the same year.

10 See Fattouh & van der Linde, supra note 5, at 90-91.

11 Id.

12 See Press Release, IEA, New Charter Strengthens Co-Operation Between Energy Producing and Consuming Countries (Feb. 23, 2011), available at http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=1833.

13 International Energy Forum Charter, §§ I & II (Feb. 22, 2011).

14 Statement by Noé van Hulst, IEF Secretary-General, Extraordinary IEF Ministerial Meeting, IEF Charter Marks A New Era (Feb. 22, 2011), available at http://www.ief.org/whatsnew/Documents/NVH%20IEF%20CHARTER%20MARKS%20A%20NEW%20ERA.pdf.

15 Noé, van Hulst, New Producer-consumer Dialogue: What to Expect? , 20th World Petroleum Congress (Dec. 5-8, 2011), at 66-67, available at http://www.ief.org/whatsnew/Documents/P66-6769%20Van%20Hulst.pdf Google Scholar.

16 Id. at 67, 69.

17 See Fattouh & van der Linde, supra note 5, at 95. Arguably, this dynamic is evidenced in the challenges faced in securing binding, multilateral commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as they relate to energy generation and consumption.

18 For example, the IEF had sought to increase the level of coordination between IEA and OPEC on the release by consuming countries of strategic petroleum reserves, which appears not have occurred even after the adoption of the IEF Charter. See, e.g., Ed Morse, IEA Drawdown Marks Major Shift in Oil Price Oolicy, Fin. Times, June 23, 2011 (reporting on the IEA-coordinated release of strategic oil stocks that may have been coordinated with Gulf Co-operation Council members, but followed a lack of agreement by OPEC countries on increasing production).

19 See, e.g., David Blair, Oil: Differences in Opec Magnified, Fin. Times, June 13, 2011; see also, Sylvia Pfeifer & Javier Blas, Opec Puts on United Front in Output Deal, Fin. Times, Dec. 14, 2011.

20 See, e.g., Najmeh Bozorgmehr&Javier Blas, Oil Price Climbs Amid Iranian Threat, Fin. Times, Dec. 27, 2011 (describing the oil price increase resulting from Iranian government threats to block traffic through the Strait of Hormuz); see also, Javier Blas, Lost in the Sands, Fin. Times, Sept. 19, 2011 (describing the recovery of the Libyan oil industry following last year’s uprising against Colonel Muammer Gaddafi); see also, Ian Austen, Route Proposals May Ease an Oil Pipeline Bottleneck, N.Y. Times, Nov. 16, 2011 (describing infrastructure bottlenecks in transporting crude oil from terminals in Cushing, OK to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast).

21 Cf. It should be noted that IEF members have expressly eschewed such a role in the past. The Cancun Ministerial Declaration expressly cast the IEF in the role of cataloguing the role of financial speculation on oil price liability and not in the role of regulator. See Fattouh & van der Linde, supra note 5, at 126.

22 Id. at 109-12.

1 Members appear on the list of oil and gas producing Member States if their production volume (measured in million tons of oil equivalent) exceeds their consumption volume (measured in million tons of oil equivalent) and on the list of oil and gas consuming Member States if their consumption volume is larger than their production volume. The top oil and gas producers are ranked by production volume, the top oil and gas consumers are ranked by consumption volume.

2 Oil and gas consuming Member States are defined as those Member States whose oil and gas consumption (measured in million tons of oil equivalent) exceeds its oil and gas production (measured in million tons of oil equivalent).

3 Oil and gas producing Member States are defined as those Member States whose oil and gas production (measured in million tons of oil equivalent) exceeds its oil and gas consumption (measured in million tons of oil equivalent).