Saudi Arabia’s Al-Moneef to withdraw his candidature for OPEC’s SEC-GEN

As demanded by a Persian Gulf official, after Majid al-Moneef was promoted within Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Economic Council for the post of OPEC secretary-general, he withdrew his candidacy.
Saudi Arabia’s former governor Al-Moneef, who previously served to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, also played a role as a senior economic adviser to Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi. At present he vowed for the producer group’s highest administrative position against candidates from Iran and Iraq. Today an official, unwilling to disclose his identity to the media, claimed that Al-Moneef has withdrawn his candidature from the contest. Whether Saudi Arabia would propose any candidate or not is not confirmed yet.
Two officials at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, when contacted over the matter, refused to disclose anything. Angela Agoawike, head of the public relations and information department, too could not be reached by Bloomberg to comment on the issue.
Today Al-Moneef has been chosen secretary-general of the Riyadh-based Supreme Economic Council by King Abdullah. The Council is led by the king. It holds the responsibility to set and oversee national economic policies and coordinates among government entities. The ministers of finance, petroleum and foreign affairs are members of this council. Since 1999 Al-Moneef has been a part of its advisory board.

Production of Saudi

About 40 percent of the world’s oil has been supplied by the OPEC’s 12 members. When they last encountered on 12 Dec in Vienna, they disagreed over the recruitment of a new secretary general. They have supported to sustain Libya’s Abdalla El-Badri in this post for an additional year. According to the statistical updates submitted by Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia which pumps 9.1 million barrels of crude in January, is the largest crude producer.
As necessity arises, the secretary general, the public face of OPEC, is entitled to coordinate emergency meeting. Al-Moneef was nominated for the post by Saudi Arabia, whereas Iran went for a former oil-minister Gholamhossein Nozari, and Iraq, OPEC’s second biggest producer, put forth the name of another former oil minister Thamir Ghadhban.
The members of OPEC’s Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela is expected to meet again on  the 31st of May.