Secretary General, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

His Excellency Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo of Nigeria began his tenure as secretary general of OPEC on August 1, 2016, and was reappointed as Secretary General for a further three years in 2019.

Over the years, he also worked in several key roles at OPEC. In 1986, he was appointed to Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC, and from 1993 to 2008, served as Nigeria’s national representative on the Organization’s Economic Commission Board. In 2006, he was acting OPEC secretary general and represented Nigeria on OPEC’s Board of Governors from 2009 to 2010.

From 2009 to 2010, he was group managing director and CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Prior to that, he served as deputy managing director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas. Earlier in his career, he was special adviser to former minister of petroleum resources and OPEC secretary general, H.E. Dr. Rilwanu Lukman KBE.

Mr. Barkindo has also been a leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the UN climate change negotiations since 1991. He served as chair of the Group of 77 and China at the UNFCCC and was elected to serve three terms as vice president of the Conference of the Parties – COP13 (Bali, Indonesia), COP14 (Poznan, Poland), and COP15 (Copenhagen, Denmark), where he chaired the opening session.

Since his assumption of office as secretary general, he has remained a leading voice in the long-standing quest for more OPEC and non-OPEC cooperation for stable oil markets on a sustainable basis.

He is currently the longest serving delegate to OPEC.