Monday, December 12, 2005

Nigeria's Dr. Edmund Daukoru To Become OPEC Chairman On Jan.1

The new chairman of OPEC for 2006 will be Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Affairs, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, lending new certainty that the Nigerian government will prevail in any dispute over rights in the Gulf of Guinea with neighbor and partner Sao Tome and Principe.

The Guardian of Nigeria reported that Daukoru hopes to help maintain stable markets for oil in the year ahead.

Here is the Guardian article:

Nigeria's Daukoru becomes OPEC President

Dr. Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources is to become the President and Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on the 1st of January 2006. The cartel has also retained a crude oil production ceiling of 28 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2006, noting that this will be adequate if fully observed, to balance the market.

At the 138th Extraordinary meeting of the OPEC conference which took place in the city of Kuwait Monday, the conference resolved that the incoming President of the conference, Dr. Edmund Daukoru should assume the responsibilities of the Secretary General from January 1, 2006, in accordance with the provisions of resolution No 128.406. This position follows the deferment of the appointment of the Secretary General until the next ordinary meeting of the conference.

While speaking with journalists after the meeting on his vision for the cartel under his leadership, he pointed out that there was the need to create market stability to ensure that production and price levels are in balance and the global economy not adversely affected.

"Environmental issues will be very much in the fore, you can't ignore them nowadays with global warming now a reality; it is no longer a speculative issue. We have to be part of the effort to reduce emission and the use of Co2 to capture Co2 and to sequestrate it.

"Those are technologies with which we hope to have a common meeting point with the EU and we already have a programme in place to share experience, share technology and maybe funding on how to utilise their Co2."

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