The Secretary-General of OPEC, Muhammad Barkindo, has dismissed insinuations that pressure by Donald Trump, U.S. President, played a role in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision to increase oil production.
Mr Barkindo, explained yesterday that the decision to increase oil production by one million barrels a day, starting July 1, 2018, was taken without political influence.
Trump had on June 13 said that: “Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good.”
Last week, when OPEC was concluding its meeting on whether to hold or increase crude oil supply, said: “Hope OPEC will increase output substantially. Need to keep prices down.”
But, Mr Barkindo said the impact of geopolitics is visible everywhere in this industry, and efforts to insulate the organisation from geopolitics have never been more challenging than now.
“The founding fathers of this organization designed it in a way that will be an unpolitical organization focusing on the industry and as a technical body that advises member countries.
“We remain focused as an unpolitical organization and will remain focused on our core responsibility of trying to manage the market, especially the instrument of supply management to maintain stability at all times.”
He noted that OPEC had transformed and that was why the organization remained a strong voice in the energy industry.
He said since he took over the leadership of the organization in August 2016, the membership had grown from 13 to 16 as result of unrelenting negotiations.
