LONDON: OPEC President Mohammed Barkindo has said it is determined to avoid a global “energy crisis” even as some members are facing international sanctions and others struggling with unrest. He said, “As an organisation, we will remain focused on our goal of avoiding an energy crisis that may affect the global economy. OPEC will pursue this policy despite current troubles in several of its member countries.”
Barkindo did not name any country but said some producers were “currently under unilateral sanctions”, meaning Iran and Venezuela. Another country “is also going through transitional challenges with all its potential consequences”, Barkindo said, also apparently about Venezuela where opposition leader Juan Guaido is trying to rally demonstrators against President Nicolas Maduro. Another group member, he said, alluding to Libya, “is fighting day in and day out to avoid an all-out war”.
Iran, as a founding member of the organisation, has regularly slammed some of the group’s members for going along with Washington’s policies against Iran and lacking solidarity. On Wednesday, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh accused OPEC members he did not name of sowing “division” and threatening the group’s “disintegration”. These countries – he said, referring to the UAE and Saudi Arabia – were “exaggerating” their production capacity to reassure markets after the US lifted sanction waivers for buyers of Iranian crude.