Page 8 - MEOG Week 27 2022

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

OPEC secretary-general dies in Abuja

OPEC MOHAMMAD Sanusi Barkindo, the secre- as OPEC’s acting secretary-general in 2006.
tary-general of OPEC, died unexpectedly in Barkindo had travelled to Abuja in prepara-
Abuja late on July 5. tion for retirement from his position at OPEC,
Barkindo, a Nigerian national, died less than as he was due to step down at the end of July. His
a day after giving the keynote speech at an indus- successor has been named as Haitham al-Ghais,
try summit in the Nigerian capital. His death was a long-time Kuwaiti oil executive currently
announced in a Twitter post by Mele Kyari, the serving as deputy managing director for inter-
group managing director of Nigerian National national marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corp.
Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC Ltd). (KPC). Al-Ghais has held many positions within
“We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi KPC and also acted as Kuwait’s OPEC governor
Barkindo. He died at about 11pm yesterday, 5 between 2017 and 2021.
July 2022. Certainly a great loss to his immedi- According to press reports, Barkindo met
ate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in
OPEC and the global energy community. Burial Abuja. He also used the occasion of his speech at
arrangements will be announced shortly,” Kyari the summit to draw attention to the shocks that
wrote. have hit the global oil and gas industry over the
As of press time, Barkindo’s cause of death last decade. He described the sector as “under
had not been specified. siege,” saying it had been affected by “two major
Barkindo began serving as OPEC’s secre- cycles: the severe market downturn in 2015 and
tary-general in August 2016 after holding a 2016 and the even more far-reaching impact of
variety of posts within OPEC and the Nigerian the COVID-19 pandemic.”
government. Most of his government posts were News of Barkindo’s death elicited sadness
with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum from many prominent industry figures. For
Corp. (NNPC), the predecessor to NNPC Ltd, example, NJ Ayuk, the executive chairman of the
which was formed last year under the Petroleum African Energy Chamber (AEC), said in a Twit-
Industry Act (PIA). ter post: “Got up to the sad news of the passing
His career at NNPC culminated in 2009- of my mentor, friend, confidant and big brother
2010, when he served as head of the company, Barkindo. One of the few persons I talk to many
also acting in that capacity as Nigeria’s governor times daily. Joked about his speech at NOG. He
for OPEC. Additionally, he was Nigeria’s repre- told me about his meeting with Buhari. He sent
sentative on OPEC’s Economic Commission me messages at midnight and I got up and he is
Board between 1993 and 2008 and briefly served gone.”™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 06•July•2022