The outgoing Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammad Barkindo, is dead, the Group Managing Director Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari has announced.
In a statement tweeted by Mr Mele Kyari on Wednesday morning stated that Barkindo died around 11pm on Tuesday.
“We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo. He died at about 11pm 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”, Kyari stated on his official Tweeter handle.
Recalled that Barkindo made a keynote address at the official opening of the ongoing 21st NOG Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday in Abuja.
In his words, “To put it bluntly, the oil and gas industry is under siege! For starters, the evolving geopolitical developments in Eastern Europe, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and inflationary pressures globally have come together, causing significant volatility and uncertainty in the commodity and energy markets.
“Against this backdrop, a number of industrialised countries and multilateral institutions continue to pursue stringent policies aimed at accelerating the energy transition and fundamentally altering the energy mix,” Barkindo said.
Born April 20, 1959, he passed at 63.
The circumstances surrounding Mr Barkindo’s death remained unclear as of the time of filing this report. Just on Tuesday, he held a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari during which he announced that his six-year tenure as OPEC scribe was coming to an end.
At that event, Mr Buhari thanked him for being a worthy ambassador of the country.
The President even directed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to mobilise the oil and gas industry to organise a befitting welcome reception in his honour when he finally returns home.
In his remark during the visit, Mr Barkindo attributed his success to the tremendous guidance, charisma and international gravitas of President Buhari; support from OPEC secretariat in Vienna; and cooperation by members of the organisation.