Oil falls to $42 as Barkindo resumes at OPEC

Global oil benchmark, Brent crude, fell by over three per cent on Monday to around $42 per barrel amid worries about growing glut in the market.

A Reuters survey on Friday found that output from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries likely rose in July to its highest in recent history as Iraq pumped more and Nigeria squeezed out additional crude exports despite militant attacks on oil installations.

Data on Friday also showed the United States added 44 new oil drilling rigs in July, the most for a month in two years, intensifying concerns that global production could once again get to unmanageable levels like in 2014-2015.

Brent crude was down by $1.47 to $42.06 per barrel as of 6:50pm Nigerian time, after a session low at $41.87, while US West Texas intermediate crude fell to $39.86, its lowest since April 20.

Meanwhile, a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mohammad Barkindo, on Monday assumed office as the secretary-general of OPEC at the secretariat in Vienna, Austria, the 13-member oil cartel said in a statement.

Barkindo was officially appointed to the post for a three-year term at OPEC’s 169th Meeting of the Conference on June 2, 2016 in Vienna.

He replaces Abdalla Salem El-Badri, who led the organisation since January 1, 2007.

An accomplished oil technocrat and veteran of OPEC, Barkindo brings with him a wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry, both in Nigeria and internationally, the group said.

From 2009 to 2010, he was Group Managing Director of the NNPC. Previous to that, he served as Deputy Managing Director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, a joint venture between the NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni. Earlier in his career, he was Special Assistant to the former Minister of Petroleum Resources and OPEC Secretary-General, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman.

According to the statement, Barkindo also worked in several key roles at OPEC between 1986 and 2010. In 1986, he was appointed a member of Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC, and from 1993 to 2008 served as Nigeria’s national representative on the organisation’s Economic Commission Board.

In 2006, he served as acting secretary-general of OPEC, and represented Nigeria on the cartel’s Board of Governors from 2009 to 2010.

OPEC said in the statement, “He has also helped produce the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol as the leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the UN negotiations since 1991.

“He also served as vice president of COP15 in 2010, when he chaired the opening session in Copenhagen attended by more than 100 heads of state and government. He is the longest serving member of the country’s delegation to the UNFCCC. He also served as chairman of the OPEC Task Force of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development for the 15th session.”

’Femi Asu/Punch