This content was published on 03 January 2022 – 02:49 PM
Vienna, Jan 3 (EFE) .- The Kuwaiti Haitham al-Ghais will replace the Nigerian Mohamed Barkindo as secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as of August 1, 2022, the group reported on Monday tanker in a statement.
As the only candidate for the position, Al-Ghais was “appointed by acclamation” for a period of three years, in an extraordinary teleconference held this afternoon by the ministers of the thirteen OPEC partners.
According to the organization’s statutes, the general secretary is elected for a three-year term and can only be re-elected once.
The second and final term of Barkindo, who took office for the first time on August 1, 2016, expires on July 31.
“Al-Ghais, a veteran of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Governor of Kuwait to OPEC from 2017 to June 2021, currently holds the position of Deputy Director General for International Marketing at the KPC,” the note highlights.
In recent years he has chaired the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of OPEC, as well as the so-called OPEC + (OPEC and allies) in 2017.
The organization’s meeting took place on the eve of the ministerial videoconference that OPEC + will hold tomorrow to decide whether to increase its oil supply by 400,000 barrels a day in February.
According to analysts, that is at least what is expected in the markets, since it is the monthly increase foreseen in the plan that the group of 23 producers launched last August to gradually recover the level they had before the crisis caused by the pandemic.
The most recent evolution of world oil markets has been studied today in an internal committee, in which Barkindo highlighted that world demand for crude oil will rise in 2022 to total an average of 100.6 million barrels per day (mbd), level higher than before the pandemic.
The secretary general urged producers to “remain very agile and adaptable to the constantly changing situation.”
At the same time, OPEC + should contribute to “providing a sense of stability, tranquility and continuity to the market and investors, despite continuing uncertainties,” Barkindo said, OPEC said in a statement. EFE
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