In a sad development, Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo who is the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been confirmed dead.
Barkindo had given up the ghost at about 11p.m on Tuesday at the age of 63 years.
His demised was announced by Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited.
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In a tweet on Wednesday morning, Kyari announced that Barkindo’s demise was a great loss to Nigeria, OPEC, his family, and the international community.
Kyari tweeted: “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,” Kyari tweeted.
“Burial arrangements will be announced shortly,” he added.
Barkindo had visited President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday. The deceased was the third ex-NNPC GMD to have passed on in two years.
In another report, Prince Mike Emuh who is the National Chairman of Oil and Gas Host Communities, has openly lamented about the country’s under-performance of crude oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day which falls below the quota given by the organisation of the Oil Producing Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Emuh had also narrated that the current under production of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, which currently fluctuates between 1.3 million barrels per day, was grossly inadequate according to OPEC for a country luke Nigeria as well as it’s complete effect on the nation’s revenue generation given that Nigeria thrives on monolithic economy.
While he was speaking with journalists in Abuja on the plight of Nigeria’s oil industry, he attributed the ugly trend to pipeline vandalisation, which he claimed was being perpetrated by those he called “untouchables.”
Prince Emuh, who doubles as Chairman of Pipeline Imparted Communities of Nigeria revealed that over 200 pipelines were vandalised across the Niger Delta alone, saying that it was a serious sabotage that the Federal government must take a drastic step to end the crime.