Minister of Energy His Excellency Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza participated in the Second Petroleum Media Forum for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). He also took part in a dialogue session with his counterparts, oil and energy ministers of the GCC States, held on the sidelines of the forum after the official opening on March 22.

H.E. Dr. Mirza said that petroleum media played a prominent role in shaping public opinion by highlighting the contribution of petroleum revenues in the economic and social development of the GCC countries and the role of oil in the growth of global economy.

The Minister said he supported the proposal put forward by the Saudi Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister His Excellency Eng. Ali bin Ebrahim Al Naimi during the panel discussion calling for the establishment of a specialized Petroleum Media Association with qualified media specialists in the oil and energy affairs. He said the changes in the oil markets and the circumstances surrounding these markets needed to be publicised. He pointed out that media specialists could project a positive image and provide credible reports on an international level.

The panel discussed a number of questions posed by the moderator, which revolved around the factors affecting the oil industry and oil market. It included supply and demand, policies of oil producer countries, OPEC decisions, political and natural events and opinions of analysts, put forward by the petroleum media over the past years and are addressed in the specialized petroleum press releases in international press, economic and non-economic petroleum related programs and information on television, internet and social networking sites and their impact on the understanding of the petroleum industry. They also discussed media in general and the work on having in place full-time professional staff and media specialists in oil and economic sectors.

The strategic GCC petroleum event was initially held in the State of Kuwait in 2013, while the second forum was hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from March 22 to 24, 2015. The main objectives of the petroleum media forum include discussing cooperation issues and challenges, raised for the first time during a dialogue session this year, which was attended by the GCC ministers of oil and energy. In addition, an exhibition was put together, attended by national oil companies in the GCC countries, also including other oil companies. Bahrain was represented at the exhibition by nogaholding, Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) and Bahrain National Gas Company (Banagas).