At an extraordinary meeting of OPEC, the ministers elected a new secretary general of the organization – from August 1, 2022, Haitham Al-Qais from Kuwait was elected for a period of three years, Interfax reported.

 Al-Qais was Kuwait's representative to OPEC from 2017 to 2021, and is currently the Deputy Managing Director of Marketing for Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

 At the traditional semi-annual OPEC conference in early December 2021, ministers were unable to elect a new secretary general to replace Mohammed Barkindo, whose term expires in August 2022.

 As Bloomberg reported, citing delegates, during the meeting, Saudi Arabia insisted on electing a new secretary general back then, but met with resistance, in particular from Iraq.  Iraq and Kuwait submitted their candidates.

 The OPEC conference usually appoints the secretary general for a period of three years and can renew his term one more time for the same period.  Barkindo was elected to the post of Secretary General of OPEC in the summer of 2016, that is, he will serve two terms.

 Barkindo is renowned worldwide for his assistance in the development of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  He remained a key stakeholder in the UNFCCC process, most recently at the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Glasgow in October and November 2021.