OPEC Secretary-General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, passed away yesterday in his home country Nigeria
Dr. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, Secretary-General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), passed away at the age of 63 in his native country Nigeria
Announced by the Group Managing Director of Nigeria’s National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, in a tweet on 6 July, Barkindo’s death has come as a surprise to the international community, with his tenure as OPEC Secretary-General having been scheduled to end on 31 July.
“We lost our esteemed Dr. Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo,” the tweet by Kyari read.
“He died at about 11 pm yesterday 5th July 2022. Certainly, a great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC, and the global energy community. Burial arrangements will be announced shortly,” stated. Mele Kyari.
With a career spanning four decades, Barkindo’s prolific work included positions at the NNPC, an international oil trading company, Duke Oil, Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry, and Energy Ministry, as well as OPEC, having served as the organization’s Secretary-General since 1 August 2016.
“We lost our esteemed Dr. Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo,” Kyari wrote on his verified Twitter handle, adding that he died late Tuesday. Kyari said the death of OPEC Secretary-General Barkindo is a “great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC, and the global energy community.”
Barkindo, who steered the oil cartel by creating the OPEC+ alliance, was due to step down at the end of this month after six years in the top job at OPEC. He had returned to Abuja in preparation for a post-OPEC career, said a Bloomberg report.
Barkindo will be remembered for his esteemed service at OPEC, having overseen some of the most turbulent periods in the history of the organization, spanning a series of production cuts, overseeing unprecedented reductions during the Covid-19 pandemic, and guiding unity among global oil producers in an effort to stabilize international oil markets.
Barkindo, who steered the oil cartel by creating the OPEC+ alliance, was due to step down at the end of this month after six years in the top job at OPEC. He had returned to Abuja in preparation for a post-OPEC career, said a Bloomberg report.
Apart from OPEC, the oil veteran’s career spans more than four decades and includes work at NNPC, Duke Oil, and Nigeria’s foreign and energy ministries. Secretary-General Barkindo oversaw OPEC through tumultuous times since 2016 when he took the top job, witnessing volatile markets due to historical events, including the pandemic outbreak, the creation of the OPEC+ alliance, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Though the oil exporters’ cartel lost two members, Qatar and Ecuador, during his tenure, Barkindo is credited with guiding unity among the group’s members to stabilize global oil markets, said a CNBC report.
His death comes amid high volatility in global energy markets, global inflation, growing climate risks, the continued fallout from COVID-19, and Russia’s war in Ukraine war—which have led to tighter oil supplies and pushed prices to record highs.
