Breaking: OPEC secretary-general, Barkindo, is dead

The Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, has been confirmed dead.

His second term at OPEC was scheduled to end on July 31, 2022, just President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday July 5 commended him for making Nigeria proud throughout his stay at OPEC.

However, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, announced his demise in a tweet in the early hours of Wednesday via his Twitter handle.

He was aged 63.

Kyari said he died at about 11p.m on Tuesday a few hours after delivering a speech to oil and gas stakeholders at the ongoing 2022 Nigerian oil and gas conference and exhibition in Abuja.

He wrote, “We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo. He died at about 11 pm yesterday 5th July 2022. Certainly a great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC and the global energy community.”

Barkindo is the third ex-NNPC GMD to have passed on within two years with Maikanti Baru passing in May 2020 and Joseph Dawha in August 2020.