Mohammad Barkindo, OPEC’s Top Official, Dies

In a statement on Wednesday, OPEC said that Mr. Barkindo had “played a key role” in forming the wider group that came to be called OPEC Plus, which includes Russia, in 2016. OPEC also said that Mr. Barkindo had helped the group navigate major downturns, including oil price falls in 2015-16 and during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Bringing Russia into decision-making on oil output was likely the most important change that occurred under Mr. Barkindo’s leadership. During the last five years, Riyadh and Moscow have often called the shots on production, with other OPEC members largely forced to go along.

Having Russia as an ally bolstered OPEC’s clout in its efforts to manage markets, but Riyadh now has a problem in deciding whether Moscow should continue as a co-leader of OPEC Plus. Russian production is being slowed by sanctions over the war in Ukraine, and it is no longer clear that Saudi Arabia and Russia share interests to the extent that they did previously.

For instance, the Saudis will probably want to send more oil to Europe to replace supplies from Russia as Europe’s embargo tightens, while Moscow might prefer that Europe felt the strain of the measures it is taking to punish the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine.

In his last speech, at an oil conference in Nigeria, Mr. Barkindo warned that the oil industry, in which he had spent his career, was now facing huge challenges, including volatile commodity prices because of geopolitics as well as pressures to reduce oil and gas consumption to mitigate climate change.

Mr. Barkindo suggested that it was unfair to blame the oil industry and oil producing countries for the current high prices. He said it was unrealistic to expect an instant recovery from the ravages of the pandemic that helped sap investment in the industry.

“You cannot turn a tap and solve the world’s oil needs overnight,” he said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/business/opec-barkindo.html