His death came as a surprise to industry insiders. His second term as head of OPEC was set to end in three weeks on July 31.
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The Secretary-General of the climate change. Barkindo used his platform to advocate in favor of a bigger role for the energy industry in conversations about the energy transition. This positioned him firmly on the side of oil producers who say more investments in oil and gas are needed until the world is able to run on alternative forms of energy.
“Our industry is now facing huge challenges along multiple fronts and these threaten our investment potential now and in the longer term. To put it bluntly, the oil and gas industry is under siege,” he said hours before his death at an energy conference in Nigeria.
Scientists and authors of U.N.-backed studies say the world needs to cut by more than half its production of coal, oil and gas in the coming decade to maintain a chance of keeping global warming from reaching dangerous levels. To do this, they say investments in oil and gas must stop and be rerouted to cleaner forms of energy.
Barkindo’s legacy, however, is perhaps most tied to his final years steering OPEC as the group entered into an agreement known as OPEC+ with major non-OPEC producer, Russia. That agreement, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and Russia, has helped steady oil markets as the world emerges from the pandemic, though it has come under criticism amid current high oil prices and as the U.S. and other Western nations try to squeeze Russia’s economy over the war in Ukraine. Brent crude has soared past $100 a barrel this year.
OPEC member-states accounted for around 48% of all world crude oil exports last year. Saudi Arabia is by far the biggest exporter of crude within OPEC, with 6.23 million barrels per day of crude exports last year. Non-OPEC producer, Russia, exported 4.5 million barrels of crude last year.
Barkindo’s successor Haitham al-Ghais, a veteran of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, was set to assume the post in August.
Born in Nigeria’s eastern city of Yola, Barkindo began his career with the Nigerian Mining Corporation in 1982 before holding multiple roles over more than two decades at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, including as its CEO. He also served as deputy managing director of Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas.
He’d led Nigeria’s technical delegation to the U.N. climate change negotiations for years and served several terms as vice president of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties.
He attended university in Nigeria before earning a post-graduate degree in petroleum economics from Oxford University in the U.K. and an MBA from Washington University in the U.S.
In his meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari told Barkindo: “Welcome back home!” according to an OPEC readout of the meeting. Buhari also congratulated him on his tenure at OPEC. Nigeria has been a member of OPEC for 50 years.
Barkindo was set to join the Atlantic Council as a distinguished fellow next month, after finishing his term at OPEC. He was a frequent speaker at the Atlantic Council’s global energy forum.
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