Oil Carte: First Elected Female OPEC President

Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum, is the first elected female president of the oil cartel. Alison-Madueke, is currently the Alternate President of OPEC was elected at the 166th meeting of the OPEC Conference in Vienna, Austria, and will assume office from January 2015.
She is expected to take over from Abdourhman Atahar Al-Ahirish, Libya’s Vice Prime Minister for Corporations. 

The conference also elected Dr Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar and Head of its delegation as Alternate President.The Federal Government had, in June nominated Alison-Madueke for the post of Secretary-General of the organisation to succeed the incumbent, Abdullah al-Badri, whose tenure ends in December. 

Speaking shortly after the election, Alison-Madueke maintained that there were no quick fixes to sliding oil prices, adding that “the strategy the Federal Government of Nigeria intends to deploy to cushion the effect of the fall is to develop the country’s gas infrastructure for domestic use.” 

She said the current trend would make Nigeria to look very stringently again at the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is already before the National Assembly to ensure that the enablers therein are explored to make it more competitive in the global energy market.  

Alison-Madueke said the burden of falling oil prices was impacting on both OPEC and non-OPEC member countries.She explained that OPEC would provide a veritable platform for member countries to find a remedy and deal with the challenges posed by shale oil and gas from the United States and the current decline in crude oil prices. She said: “US shale oil and gas had a lot of impacts on all major oil and gas producing economies. It is a major game changer for all stakeholders in the energy mix across the globe.” 

Allison-Madueke further stated that in the months ahead, OPEC would provide a veritable platform for member countries to find a remedy and deal with the issue frontally.