Opec’s Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo dies at 63
- Mohammad Barkindo was in the final weeks of his six-year tenure at OPEC
- Barkindo’s career in the oil industry began in Nigeria in the early 1980s
The secretary general of oil producers group Opec, Mohammad Barkindo, has died, the boss of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) announced on Wednesday.
Barkindo, 63, was due to step down at the end of this month after six years in the top job at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
“We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo,” NNPC CEO Mele Kyari wrote on Twitter, adding that he died late on Tuesday.
The death is a “great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the Opec and the global energy community,” Kyari added.
Kyari said Barkindo died hours after meeting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and giving the main speech at an energy summit in Abuja.
The reason for his death was not immediately known.