The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan will be on an official visit to Bangkok,Thailand from 01-02^nd November 2017 to participate in the IEF 7^thAsian Ministerial Energy Roundtable (AMER7). India is the current chair of International Energy Forum (IEF) which is promoting the AMER - a biennial event bringing together Energy Ministers and experts from Asian countries.

At the 7^th AMER, Minister will participate in the Ministerial Roundtable and speak on “Natural Gas: Overcoming Market and Policy Hurdles to the Golden Age of Gas” along with Energy Ministers from Ministers Qatar, Brunei and Senior Representatives from Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). Energy Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Russia, UAE, Thailand, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Brunei are also participating in the AMER.

In the recent years, India has played a leadership role in Oil and Gas sector. On 18^th October 2017, Minister Pradhan participated in the 6^th Annual LNG Producers Consumer Conference held in Tokyo, Japan and called for establishing a Liquid, Flexible and Global LNG Market between the countries providing a framework to cooperate in facilitating flexibility in LNG contracts, abolition of Destination Restriction Clause and also explore possibilities of cooperation in establishing reliable LNG spot price indices reflecting true LNG demand and supply. Shri Pradhan, during his meetings and interactions with OPEC Secretary General, has called for replacing the ‘Asian Premium’ with ‘Asian Discount’. He has emphasized the implementation of ‘Responsible and Reasonable Pricing’ by producing countries.In this background, the IEF, whose membership accounts for 90% of global supply and demand for oil and gas, is an important forum to share India’s views on global oil and gas scenario and the changes that are required to balance it better and benefit not only producers, but also consumers. The 7^th AMER at Bangkok will be an important IEF event before India hosts the 16^th IEF Ministerial meeting.

India is the current Chair of IEF and will host the 16^th Ministerial Conference of the IEF in India schedule during April 2018. During his participation in the 7^th AMER, Minister Pradhan will invite his counterparts from Asian countries to participate in the prestigious 16^th IEF Ministerial Conference in India.

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