Former OPEC Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman died in Vienna. He was 75.
Lukman steered the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries through the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, when crude fell to $10 a barrel. He presided over a record number of OPEC conferences and was the group’s secretary-general for six years until 2000. Lukman was Nigeria’s oil minister from 1986 to 1990 and again for a two-year stint from 2008.
Born in Zaria, northern Nigeria, on Aug. 26, 1938, Lukman trained as an engineer to work on tin mines in the country’s central plateau around the city of Jos. Afer several promotions, by 1979 he had risen to become chief executive officer of Nigerian Mining Corp. He achieved university degrees in both Nigeria and the U.K.
Lukman served four different Nigerian leaders either as minister or energy adviser during more than two decades until he left office in 2010. He was also named the nation’s mining and steels minister in 1984.
He initiated reforms to change the way the Nigerian oil and gas industry is regulated and funded, overseeing the drafting of the first Petroleum Industry Bill sent to lawmakers in December 2008. The legislation remains stalled in parliament over differences between the government and energy companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX)
A statement from OPEC did not give a cause of death.
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