OPEC countries may elect new Secretary-General today

The ministers of the OPEC countries will hold a special meeting on Monday, January 3, where they will discuss the candidacy of the new Secretary-General of the organization, who should replace Mohammed Barkindo starting from August, according to the agenda of the meeting.

According to a source, the only candidate for this post so far is the representative of Kuwait, Haitham al-Ghais, who led the country’s delegation to OPEC from 2017 to 2021. Earlier, OPEC ministers discussed this issue in early December, but could not make a decision and postponed the vote to January, TASS reported.

Mohammed Barkindo has occupied the post of OPEC Secretary-General since 2016, his second term of office expires in July 2022. According to the OPEC charter, the Secretary-General is elected for a three-year term and can be re-elected only once.