Ministers from OPEC countries will try next week to appoint a new secretary general for the organization, to succeed Abdullah Al-Badri, whose second term expires at the end of this month, after six years at the helm. Ministers have four candidates to choose from: Saudi Arabia's Dr. Majed al-Mounif, Iran's Gholam-Hossein Nozari, Iraq's Thamer al-Ghadban and Ecuador's Wilson Pastor. The Saudi candidate has wide knowledge of OPEC, conferences, and the organization's secretariat general. He worked as an economic adviser to Saudi oil ministers for more than a decade and also served long as Saudi Arabia's representative to the OPEC General Secretariat's Board of Governors in Vienna. In addition, there is his wide experience in the fields of economics and oil; he is also a member of Saudi Arabia's Shura Council. Thamer al-Ghadban was Iraq's oil minister under Iyad Allawi between 2004 and 2005 and long worked in the field of oil in Iraq. He has wide expertise in his country's oil sector and is respected for his work. The Iranian candidate, Gholam-Hossein Nozari, is a former oil minister from 2007 and the fourth candidate is the Ecuadorean oil minister, Wilson Pastor. OPEC has always faced political disputes that delay the appointment of a secretary general because its charter stipulates that it must be by consensus. Arab states decided a few months ago, during a meeting of the Arab League, to put forward none other than Saudi Arabia's Majed al-Mounif, but Iraq's vice president for the oil sector, Hussein Shahristani, nominated Thamer al-Ghadban. Some Iraqi circles maintained that this was an attempt to remove him from the Oil Ministry in Iraq, because he is the most qualified in the field and works as an adviser to Nuri al-Maliki, and is opposed to Shahristani in his politics. Shahristani's nomination of al-Ghadban was like killing two birds with one stone. He got rid of his rival in Iraq and pleased his Iranian ally, which was trying to block the hugely competent and able Saudi candidate. Shahristani nominated al-Ghadban without telling the Iraqi Cabinet beforehand. When Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari about why it did not adhere to the Arab League decision, he said he was unaware of al-Ghadban's candidacy. It would have been better for Iraq to wait for another term to put forward its candidate instead of doing so at the behest of Tehran, in a new maneuver to divide the Arabs, irrespective of al-Ghadban's ability and competence. A committee was formed by OPEC to decide which one of the four candidates is qualified enough to handle the organization's secretary general post. It requires good skills to manage an organization and represent it at international forums. Dr. al-Mounif has wide experience in meetings of discussion among oil-exporting countries and the biggest of them, Saudi Arabia, and in the International Energy Agency, as he has taken part in a number of meetings and discussions. He has also long served at the side of Saudi oil ministers Hisham Nazer and Ali al-Nuaymi at OPEC conferences for more than 15 years. However, politics is unfortunately preventing the reaching of any consensus. It might require intervention by the leaders of concerned countries and if the division over the secretary general's post continues, the organization might have to extend al-Badri's term, or postpone a solution to the problem. The longest tenure possible is six years and al-Badri reached this upon completing his second three-year term, after receiving the permitted one-time renewal. How will OPEC solve this problem and reach a consensus on a candidate who is forbidden by political reasons? Will a candidate from a neutral country be selected at the last minute, as in 1995, with the appointment of Nigeria's Rilwana Lukman, to solve a problem that constantly returns due to the political relations among members? During the first Gulf War, the organization remained without a secretary general and a caretaker took over. The current Ecuadorean candidate is considered not neutral, and does not have wide experience with OPEC. He is close to Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez, who has close ties to Iran. He is not a strong candidate. The ideal solution will truly come from relying on the results of the committee that was tasked with identifying the most qualified candidate, and who is best to handle the position. But it will not transpire this way, since Iran wants to block the capable, qualified Saudi candidate for running the organization well. While OPEC is reaching an agreement on production and prices when price levels are good, as they are now (with the OPEC basket at around $108 a barrel) and the biggest producer in OPEC, Saudi Arabia, guaranteeing the world that markets will be supplied and kept stable, the issue of the secretary general remains complex because politics dominates and will delay it until further notice, leading to al-Badri's short extension, until a miracle solution arises.
