The International Energy Forum (IEF) held its 14th ministerial meeting in Moscow on May 15 and 16 amid the crisis surrounding Russia’s relations with the West as a result of the Ukraine situation.

The IEF was created in 1991 as a result of a rapprochement between oil-producing countries, as represented by Opec, and oil-consuming countries, as represented by the IEA, where each group, especially Opec, often called for producer–consumer dialogue. The organisation was built on informal discussions and the exchange of ideas in the hope of introducing understanding of each group’s concerns, and thus reduce the higher than normal volatility of oil prices during the 1990s.

It took some years before the organisation acquired its current structure, with a secretariat established in 2002 and later based in Riyadh. Energy-related regional and international organisations joined in and the membership grew to 75 countries, as signatories to the IEF Charter and representing close to 90 per cent of the world’s oil supply and demand.

One of the vital information for the oil markets is actual consumption and production of oil and its derivatives and, therefore, the forum launched the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) in 2001, which is recognised today as a reliable source of statistics on a monthly basis “to raise the awareness of all oil market players to the need for more transparency in oil market data”.

Though the data is sometimes late in coming, it has been “made freely accessible to all — organisations, countries, industry, analysts and others”. Other countries’ data are now sought as well.

Building on the success of JODI, the IEF secretariat has just launched the gas initiative to run in parallel with oil and to serve up knowledge and statistical information of yet another source of energy, which is rising fast and often affecting the oil markets as well.

The forum’s bi-annual Ministerial Meetings are the world’s largest gathering of energy ministers. But the Moscow meeting was attended by 18 ministers due to an undeclared boycott by western governments over the events in the Ukraine.

There was an extremely wide agenda to discuss — the impact of unconventional oil and gas supplies, the transition to a low-carbon economy, and the alleviation of energy poverty and energy security among other things.

Saudi oil minister Ali Al Naimi spoke about the successes of IEF, while Iraqi minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi Bahedh spoke about Iraq’s energy policy. Maria van der Hoeven, IEA executive director, spoke about co-operation as key to security and stability. She must have been considered a notable representative of all western governments.

The two-day meeting was scheduled well before the event in the Ukraine and was thought to improve global energy security. But Russian threats to stop natural gas supplies to Ukraine overshadowed the meeting, at least in the private discussions, as they risked affecting supplies to Europe.

On the surface, the Ukraine debacle, described as the “elephant in the room”, did not affect the meeting as there was no particular discussion of the issues involved. The Russians tried hard to dispel any doubt about their supplies, and Minister Alexander Novak in his address said: “Russia has always fulfilled its commitments for energy deliveries,” and “We are ready to provide security of supply as a reliable partner”.

The Saudi oil minister said to reporters when he was pressed: “I don’t know why you are all preoccupied with this issue”. Another Gulf delegate said: “We were not here to discuss a possible crisis. We were here to discuss co-operation.”

Platts also reported the Russian minister as saying that “Russia is ready to provide all the conditions for foreign companies to continue work in the country despite increasing concern over possible new sanctions that the US and the European Union could impose against Russia”.

No energy company so far has elected to bail out of its Russian commitments or partnership. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, pointing at Ukraine, also said: “I would like to say a very simple idea. Supplied energy resources are to be paid for. Generally speaking, payments should not be linked with politics in any way.”

But most importantly he said: “Artificial diversification of energy flows may result in the disruption of traditional economic ties, huge costs and unprofitable production facilities.”

Obviously he is pointing at US gas replacing Russian gas in Europe. There is no need to stress the obvious and the fact that Russia and Europe need each other and must find a solution to the current crises. Oil prices are also very important to Russia and, in my view, this meeting and any further sanctions on Russia are likely to draw Russia to co-operate with Opec much more than it did in the 1990s.