Until 2007, the GECF was a platform for the exchange of experience in the gas sector, which did not have a permanent leadership, budget and headquarters. But within the framework of this platform, high-level meetings were regularly held. At the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the GECF in Doha, it was decided to create a working group under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of Russia to coordinate actions to form a full-fledged organization. This step was perceived as the inevitability of creating a gas analogue of OPEC. As a result, the agreement on the establishment of the organization with the preservation of the name of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum was signed a year later on December 23, 2008 at the 7th Ministerial Meeting in Moscow.