Africa-Press – Angola. The new secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Haitham Al-Ghais, said this Monday, by telephone, that in two or three months he intends to to pay a visit to Luanda to thank the Angolan Government and President João Lourenço for their support in his election, as well as the country’s importance in the organization’s decisions.
On the first day of his inauguration in Vienna, Austria, Haitham Al-Ghais said that Angola and Africa, as a whole, are important partners and that OPEC will continue to focus on group decisions to better lead the market.
“I really appreciate the support of the Government of Angola for my candidacy as secretary-general of OPEC. And the unanimous vote that was made by the 13 member countries. I am very grateful for this position of Angola, clearly, for the position of the President of the Republic. Angola is a major oil producer and an important member of the market, as well as the declaration of cooperation signed in 2017,” he said.
According to Haitham Al-Ghais, Angola is a signatory of the agreement that positions the organization in the face of the challenges of maintaining the balance of supply and demand for oil.
As for the concrete challenges for Angola, the new OPEC “manager” promises to address them more precisely during his visit to Luanda, which, at the moment, is just waiting for formalization with the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas.
“Today was my first day, but we have many plans to increase cooperation between Angola and OPEC and with other African countries, to restore the balance we need in the international oil market,” he said.
In this sense, Al-Ghais said that he will consult the steering committee, ministers and the group of governors, representatives of member countries, on the studies, ideas and projects he has for Angola and others, which aim to increase production.
The new secretary-general also confirmed for tomorrow, the meeting of the Council of Ministers and the ministers representing the OPEC+ group.
Haitham Al-Ghais is from Kuwait and was recently unanimously elected to the post of secretary general of OPEC, replacing Nigerian Mohammed Barkindo, who died in July of illness at the age of 63.
Russia is a vital ally of the OPEC+ group
Haitham Al-Ghais, a native of Kuwait, began, this Monday, in Vienna, Austria, as secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), replacing the Nigerian Mohamed Barkindo, who died of illness at the beginning of July.
As quoted by Reuters, Haitham Al-Ghais was the deputy director general of international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and was the country’s governor in OPEC.
After taking office, the new secretary general said that Russia is a vital ally for the OPEC+ group to succeed, according to Kuwait’s ‘Alrai’ newspaper, which Reuters had access to.
The official said that OPEC and Russia are not competing and even said that the country led by Vladimir Putin is “a great, main and highly influential actor on the world energy map”.
The first meeting led by Al-Ghais takes place on August 3rd, tomorrow, therefore, where the group must analyze the decision to keep oil production unchanged in September, despite requests from the United States for an increase.
However, sources told the news agency that a reduced production increase is likely to be discussed.
On this, the new secretary general said that “OPEC does not control oil prices, but practices what is called tuning the markets in terms of supply and demand”.
For Al-Ghais, the current oil market is “very volatile and turbulent”.
Regarding the recent rises in oil prices, he said they are not “only related to the developments between Russia and Ukraine”, as “all the data confirm that prices started to rise gradually and cumulatively and before the outbreak of Russian developments- Ukraine, due to the prevailing perception in the markets that there is a lack of surplus production capacity, which was limited to a few countries”.
Despite the conflict in Ukraine, the factor that the new secretary general points out as responsible for affecting oil prices, until the end of the year, is “the continuous lack of investment in the field of drilling, exploration and production”.
“This will push prices higher, but we cannot determine what level they will reach,” he concluded.
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