OPEC: Barkindo to bow out as Sec Gen in August

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Nigeria’s oil diplomacy maestro, Dr Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, who has functioned as the Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) since 2016, will serve out his tenure this July and yield the position to newly elected Haitham Al-Ghais of Kuwait.

Dr Barkindo will bequeath the role after brokering the Declaration of Cooperation (DOC) between OPEC and 10 more key oil producers in a coalition that now has solid control over the global energy market and more strident voice in the global energy debate.

He played remarkable role in stimulating a broader coalition across ideological divides in salvaging the petroleum industry, global financial institutions and world economy through a first ever global industry and political convergence in protecting the global oil market from the turbulence of the global COVID-19 pandemic and associated downturn.

To save the market and the industry from value destruction and arrest looming disaster in the highly exposed global financial markets, Dr. Barkindo coordinated OPEC’s efforts to secure international approval to wipe over 10 million barrels per day off the market supply in order to achieve balance.

He has also championed industry advocacy for balanced approach towards to the global movement for energy transition, stepping into the global podium for policy debate with solid and unimpeachable arguments, statistics and projections that assert the relevance of petroleum in the global energy mix in the foreseeable future.

Dr Barkindo worked with a team of technocrats and industry veterans from across countries whose delegates were in different committees of OPEC, including Haitham Al-Ghais who worked in the Joint Technical Committee of the OPEC coalition until 2021.

Together, all the committees worked with the secretariat to achieve the goal of the coalition in matching supply with demand.

The 23-nation OPEC+ coalition is expected to release more 400,000 barrels a day of oil into the market in a meeting scheduled for January 4. The expected production increase follows the coalition’s tight outlook for the oil market.

At a preliminary meeting on Monday, the group’s analysts cut estimates for the surplus expected in the first quarter, predicting.

The group which held preliminary meeting on January 3 envisaged weaker supply growth from rival producers.

Despite restoring about two-thirds of the production members halted in 2020the OPEC+ coalition has succeeded in pushing oil prices near $78 a barrel.

The OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee, which analyzes the market on behalf of ministers, predicts improved demand as the world achieves better management of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With his appointment, Haitham Al-Ghais who worked in the JTC would now lead the team that runs the OPEC secretariat as from August Dr Barkindo would bow out.

Dr Barkindo is passing the baton of managing the OPEC secretariat at a time global oil market is relatively stabilized and producers have begun responding to rising demand as global economies recover from pandemic lulls.

OPEC is adding barrels at a time fuel inventories are currently at low. Stockpiles in developed nations were 85 million barrels below their average from 2015 to 2019 as of November, according to the JTC.

Al-Ghais who previously worked for the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and served as Kuwait’s OPEC Governor from 2017 to June 2021 currently works as deputy managing director for International Marketing at KPC.

He told secondary sources on Monday that global oil demand should return to its pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022.

Haitham al-Ghais echoed the position of Dr Barkindo that  the OPEC+ alliance was important for the stability and balance of oil markets.