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Nigeria’s Barkindo may become OPEC secretary-general

By on June 2, 2016

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is likely to choose a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mohammed Barkindo, as its next secretary-general.

Three sources with knowledge of the matter were quoted by Reuters to have said this on Tuesday.

Barkindo, who was recently nominated by the Federal Government for the position, led the NNPC from 2009 to 2010, and served as acting secretary-general of OPEC in 2006, as well as representing Nigeria at the group.

OPEC has been looking for a replacement for Libya’s Abdalla El-Badri, who was elected as acting secretary-general in December until the end of July after serving full terms.

Oil ministers from OPEC countries will converge on Vienna, Austria on Thursday, July 2, for their next meeting. The consensus of all members, which in the past had sometimes been elusive, is required for the appointment of a new secretary-general.

The 13-member oil cartel has tried unsuccessfully for more than three years to find a replacement for the current secretary-general, who was due to stand down in 2012 after serving two terms in the role. At OPEC’s last meeting in December, El-Badri’s term was extended until July.

Meanwhile, OPEC’s oil output fell in May from near a record high, a Reuters survey found on Tuesday, as attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry and other outages outweighed increases in Iran and Gulf members.

 

[Punch]