OPEC Secretary General Rilwanu Lukman will continue to divide his time between his Vienna job and his role as petroleum and energy advisor to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for the coming months.
With OPEC ministers devoting their full attention to the issue of raising output when they met on March 27th in Vienna, the issue of choosing Lukman’s successor in the OPEC secretariat was not addressed.
Lukman, who is in his second three-year term as OPEC’s secretary general, was appointed as Obasanjo’s energy and oil advisor a few weeks after the Nigerian president took office in May 1999. Since then, he has been spending roughly one-third of his time at the secretariat with the remainder spent in Nigeria, sources say.
His OPEC term was to conclude at the end of this year, but insiders say that the group’s ministers may try to resolve the tricky issue of his successor when they next meet on June 21st in order to free him up to return to Abuja and work for Obasanjo full time.
The OPEC ministers had reached a stalemate over a possible replacement for Lukman at their September 1999 conference. In serious contention for the job were the Saudi and Iranian OPEC governors, Sulemein al-Herbish and Hossein Kazempour Ardebeli, respectively.
Iraq complicated the vote by putting forward its own candidate, Abdul-Amir al-Anbari, which forced the group to put off the decision until another meeting.
Given that the ministers’ chief concern at their March gathering was to reach agreement on a plan to increase crude output to bring international prices down, discussion about the secretary general was bypassed.
At the conclusion of that meeting, Lukman made it clear he would stay on in his secretariat post until the issue is settled in the coming months.
Lukman was born on August 26th, 1938, at Zaria in the northern state of Kaduna. After completing his early education in Zaria, he received a degree in mining from the Royal School of Mines at the University of London in 1962. In 1968, Lukman completed a higher degree in mining engineering from the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Loeber, Austria.
Since then, he has continued to expand on his scholastic achievements, earning a degree in mineral economics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1978, a doctorate of philosophy in chemical engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, in October 1988 and a doctor of science degree from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria in February 1991.
Joining the Nigerian government in 1964, Lukman rose through the ranks of the African country’s federal ministry of mines and power during the 1960s and 1970s to become minister of mines, power and steel in 1984. In February 1986, he became the head of the ministry of petroleum, where he helped establish the structure of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC).
As Nigeria’s oil minister, Lukman was first elected president of OPEC in 1986 and served eight consecutive terms through mid-1989. He also had a brief stint as Nigerian foreign affairs minister from 1989 to 1990.
Lukman subsequently served as chairman of Europe Energy Environment Ltd. of London in 1991 and chairman of the National Electricity and Power Authority of Lagos in 1993.
Lukman was the surprise choice to head the OPEC secretariat when he was selected at the OPEC ministerial conference in November 1994 in Bali, Indonesia. There had been two candidates that had been put forward previously, Venezuela's former oil minister, Alirio Parra, and Iran's OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebeli.
At their June 1994 conference, the ministers had deadlocked over the two candidates and they appeared to be similarly divided at the November conference, when Lukman's candidacy was put forward.
He was backed by Saudi Arabia, and in fact, was quietly flown into Bali during the conference. He was promptly elected as OPEC secretary general to serve a three year-term beginning January 1st, 1995 and concluding December 31st, 1997. He was re-elected to another three-year term at the end of 1997, which was to carry from January 1st, 1998 through to the end of 2000.
As head of the secretariat, Lukman’s job is chiefly administrative and is meant to be apolitical. The secretariat is a permanent inter-governmental body, which has been based in Vienna since 1965. It provides research and administrative support to OPEC’s member countries. However, like past OPEC secretary generals, Lukman will speak out on OPEC-related issues.
With Obasanjo taking office last May, Lukman returned to playing an important energy role within Nigeria. Disbanding the energy ministry and doing away with the ministerial position, the president appointed Lukman as his key petroleum and energy advisor.
Although Lukman’s powers are limited as Obasanjo retains the petroleum portfolio, the president takes his advice on all matters pertaining to OPEC, relations with NNPC's foreign equity partners and major energy issues, including contract awards.
It was from Lukman's office that the Nigerian government in early July 1999 announced the cancellation of around 30 exploration and production licenses that had been awarded to local companies since 1995.
These included 11 highly attractive deep-water blocks contracted in March 1999 to companies with links to the former caretaker military government of Abdulsalami Abubakar.
The 11 blocks had been the subject of keen interest among NNPC's main foreign partners: Royal Dutch/Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp, Elf Aquitaine, Agip and Texaco Inc.
The Department of Petroleum Resources recently also revoked 30 blocks that were awarded prior to 1995 because the licensees had failed to execute agreed work programs within the first five years of their leases.
Note: This item was first published by Oilnavigator on 06/04/00.
( oilnavigator )
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
