Opec’s new secretary general assumes charge in Vienna

Muscat: Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo of Nigeria assumed office on Monday in his role as the new Secretary General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria.
Barkindo was officially appointed to the post for a three-year term at OPEC’s 169th Conference held on June 2 in Vienna, according to a press release.
He replaces outgoing Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, who has led the organisation since January 1, 2007.
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. From 2009 to 2010, he was Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Previous 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.
Barkindo has 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, and served as Nigeria’s National Representative on the Organisation’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.
He has also helped produce the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto protocol as the leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the United Nations’ 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. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Barkindo went on to secure a postgraduate diploma in Petroleum Economics and Management from the College of Petroleum Studies at Oxford University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.