By Adadareporters
The secretary-general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, is dead.
The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, stated in a tweet in the early hours of Wednesday.
According to Kyari, the deceased died at about 11p.m on Tuesday few hours after delivering a speech to oil and gas stakeholders at the ongoing 2022 Nigerian oil and gas conference and exhibition in Abuja.
After the event, he met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the statehouse alongside a delegation from the OPEC secretariat, he said.
He was aged 63.
Kyari described his departure as a great loss to his immediate family, NNPC Nigeria, OPEC and the global energy community.
Quoting him, “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
“Burial arrangements will be announced shortly,” Kyari tweeted.
Barkindo is the third ex-NNPC GMD to have passed on in two years — Maikanti Baru died in May 2020 and Joseph Dawha in August 2020.
His second term at OPEC ends on July 31, 2022.
