President Muhammadu Buhari will on Friday depart Abuja to participate in the 5th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said in a statement on Thursday that the President would be accompanied on the trip by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; and Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
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Others to make up the entourage are Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite; and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari.
This is the first time the biennial meeting will be hosted in Africa.
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.
Buhari had attended the 3rd Gas Summit in Tehran in November 2015.
The Nigerian delegation will also use the opportunity to discuss current trends in the global gas market, potential policies for the energy sector and opportunities for collaboration.
At the end of the summit, the Malabo Declaration is expected to be adopted.
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The statement also said that President Buhari would, at the end of the summit, head for Daura, Katsina State on a five-day official visit.
The idea of GECF was first conceived 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.
