Barkindo assumes office as OPEC Secretary-General

This is Barkindo and his predecessor, Abdalla El-Badri,...hehehehe

A former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mohammad Barkindo, on Monday assumed office in his role as Secretary-General of OPEC at the secretariat in Vienna, Austria.


Barkindo was officially appointed to the post for a three-year term at OPEC’s 169th Meeting of the Conference on June 2, 2016 in Vienna.
He replaces outgoing Secretary General, Abdalla El-Badri, who has led the organisation since January 1, 2007, the 13-member oil cartel said in a statement.

An accomplished oil technocrat and veteran of OPEC, Barkindo brings with him a wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry, both in Nigeria and internationally, the group said.
From 2009 to 2010, he was Group Managing Director of the NNPC. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, a joint venture between NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni.
Earlier in his career, he was Special Assistant to former Minister of Petroleum Resources and OPEC Secretary-General, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman.
According to the statement, Barkindo also worked in several key roles at OPEC between 1986 and 2010. In 1986, he was appointed to Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC, and from 1993 to 2008, served as Nigeria’s national representative on the organization’s Economic Commission Board.
In 2006, he served as acting secretary-general of OPEC, and represented Nigeria on OPEC’s Board of Governors from 2009 to 2010.
OPEC said, “He has also helped produce the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto protocol as the leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the UN negotiations since 1991.
“He also served as vice president of COP15 in 2010, when he chaired the opening session in Copenhagen attended by more than 100 heads of state and government.
“He is the longest serving member of the country’s delegation to the UNFCCC. He also served as chairman of the OPEC Task Force of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development for the 15th session.”