OAPEC elects Iraq's oil minister as secretary-general

Shafaq News/ The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) elected Iraq's oil minister, Hayyan Abdul-Ghani, as a secretary-general during its 109th meeting on Monday.

A press release by the Iraqi oil ministry said that Iraq's representative in the organization, Naseer Azeez Jabbar, was elected as the head of the executive committee.

According to the press release, Minister Abdul-Ghani reiterated Iraq's commitment to bolstering the organization, laying emphasis on adopting novel visions to cooperate and cope with the challenges facing the market.

Abdul-Ghani called for a thorough revision of the organization's system and its management of the challenges facing the market in order to achieve stability.

"The most important challenges are mainly geopolitical: health, wars, and military tensions," he said, "we are working in OPEC+ to reduce their impact."

"The European-Russian conflict has affected the global market. We hope they manage to find common ground," he continued.

Incumbent Secretary-General Ali Sabt Bin Sabt stated that the Organization's Council of Ministers held its 109th meeting in Kuwait today, December 12, 2022 AD, headed by Engineer Bassam Radwan Tohme, Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources of the Syrian Arab Republic , which holds the presidency of the session for the year 2022.

Bin Sabt added that the meeting discussed a set of issues related to the work and activities of the organization, including the draft estimated budget of the organization (the general secretariat and the judicial body) for the year 2023, and the meeting reviewed the progress made in terms of implementing the plan to activate and develop the organization’s activity approved by the organization’s cabinet, especially In the field of activating the relationship between the General Secretariat of the organization and the Arab companies emanating from it, in the field of activating the role of the organization in training, in the field of coordinating the positions of member states and other countries regarding climate change negotiations and the obligations arising from it, and in the field of developing the data bank and activating its role.

The meeting also reviewed the report prepared on the preparations for the Twelfth Arab Energy Conference, to be held in the State of Qatar during the last quarter of 2023, and the events and seminars organized by the General Secretariat or participated in during the year 2022.

The meeting also discussed the follow-up to the esteemed Council of Ministers' decision "107/4" regarding assigning the executive office of the organization, in coordination with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to activate the Green Middle East initiative and adopt the implementation of the concept of a circular carbon economy.

He explained that the council had also reviewed the economic and technical studies carried out by the General Secretariat, in addition to the reports prepared by the General Secretariat of OAPEC, including the quarterly report on the global petroleum situation, the quarterly report on "developments in liquefied natural gas and hydrogen" and others.