OPEC Hires Al-Ghais as its New Secretary General as Barkindo Leaves

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has appointed Mr Haitham Al-Ghais as the organisation’s Secretary-General effective August 1.

OPEC made the appointment at a Special Meeting on Monday held via video conference, which was chaired by president Jean-Richard Itoua, Congo’s Minister of Hydrocarbons and Head of its Delegation.

Al-Ghais, a veteran of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, takes over from Mr Mohammad Barkindo, a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

OPEC said in a statement on its website that Al-Ghais appointment was in accordance with Article 28 of the OPEC Statute and in the application of the procedure decided at the 182nd Meeting of the Conference on Dec. 1, 2021.

The statement said the appointment effective August 1, was for a period of three years.

“Al-Ghais, a veteran of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and Kuwait’s OPEC Governor from 2017 to June 2021, currently serves as Deputy Managing Director for International Marketing at KPC.

“He Chaired the Joint Technical Committee of the Declaration of Cooperation in 2017 and subsequently served as a Member of the JTC until June 2021,” it said.