…To summon emergency meeting over oil prices
Oscarline Onwuemenyi 22 June 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The newly-appointed Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, has said he will summon an emergency meeting of member-countries to tackle the falling crude oil price in the market.
Speaking in Yola, Adamawa State, Barkindo lamented the negative effect of the attacks by Niger Delta Avengers on Nigeria’s oil revenue, saying the country could not afford to lose more revenue at this critical moment.
Barkindo, who took over from Libya’s Abdallah El-Badri, who held the post since 2007, said his major task in the OPEC fold is to bring back unity among members.
The OPEC scribe said he would use his position to mobilise the oil producing countries to take positive steps toward a better future.
“First and foremost by the grace of God, we will strive to re-unite the organisation so that we can once again have a strong, united OPEC that will take up the challenges that are currently being faced not only by OPEC but the international oil and gas industry,” he said.
Barkindo used the occasion to thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for lobbying other OPEC member states to support his emergence as the new secretary-general of OPEC.
He pledged to convene an emergency congress of OPEC countries in order to discuss the best way to address the dwindling prices of crude oil, which, he said, was a source of concern among member-states.
According to him, OPEC member-states must close ranks to face the challenges facing the oil and gas countries with a view to charting a way forward.