OPEC says extends Badri as secretary general for extra 6-month, Alison-Madueke candidacy on hold

OPEC sec-gen, el-Badri

Hope of Nigeria's petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke of becoming the Organisation of Petroleum Countries (OPEC) secretary general was dashed on Wednesday when members agreed to extend Abdalla el-Badri's term as secretary general for an additional six months.
According to OPEC, the petroleum cartel also agreed to roll over the current crude output ceiling for the remainder of the year  after talks in Vienna.
"The conference decided to extend the tenure of Badri as secretary general for six months from January 1, 2015," OPEC said in statement read out to journalists.
Nigeria has nominated Alison-Madueke to succeed long serving incumbent Abdullah al-Badri as OPEC secretary-general on Tuesday, said Iraq's oil minister. 
The proposal was intended to solve the deadlock over the post created by opposing candidates from Saudi Arabia and Iran, Abdul Kareem Luaibi said. 
when confronted with the speculation of her nomination as a candidate at the Wednesday's talk, Alison-Madueke would not confirm, meanwhile, that Nigeria was proposing her as secretary general of OPEC and that she had already held several meetings with a number of ministers in her bid to replace former Libyan oil minister Abdalla el-Badri who is due to leave the secretariat at the end of the year.
She did say, however, that the issue would not be discussed during Wednesday's meeting.
Meanwhile, the OPEC statement said ministers will review the 30 million b/d ceiling, which is roughly in line with current OPEC production, at a November 27 meeting in the Austrian capital, when they will also discuss the question of who should replace Badri, who had been due to leave the secretariat at the end of December.

Alison-Madueke

Earlier, a delegate said the issue of finding a successor to Badri had come up during Wednesday's talks but that ministers would discuss the topic in detail in November.
Choosing an OPEC secretary general has rarely been easy because of the political undercurrents among OPEC's Middle East members that can delay agreement on even this largely administrative job.
Badri was himself a compromise candidate who came to the post in January 2006 and served two three-year terms that ended in December 2012. He has remained in office since then because OPEC has been unable to achieve unanimity on a single candidate. Saudi Arabia has nominated its former OPEC governor, Majid Moneef, while Iran and Iraq have nominated former oil ministers Gholamhossein Nozari and Thamer Ghadban. All three Gulf producers have insisted that their respective candidates are best suited to the job.
NIGERIAN MINISTER COMES FORWARD
Another candidate has emerged, however, in the form of Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Iraqi oil minister Abdul-Karim al-Luaibi said on Tuesday that he was "surprised" when Alison-Madueke had told him earlier in the day that she was a contender for the post.
"We didn't receive any official notice that she had nominated herself for the position," he told reporters.
"We pointed out that the nomination for the secretary general should be based on a professional basis or criteria," he said.
Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said he was continuing to back Moneef, an OPEC veteran.
"I have a candidate myself. I support my candidate. Anybody can be a compromise," Naimi told reporters just ahead of the OPEC meeting.
Alison-Madueke would not confirm her candidacy or that she had already held several meetings with a number of ministers in her bid to replace Badri.