Just a month to his 76th birthday, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum and one-time Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is dead.
Lukman died at 1am Nigerian time on Monday in Vienna, Austria of an undisclosed ailment. His death has been confirmed by family sources.
According to the sources, the corpse of the late petroleum engineer would be returned to the country after it passes through the foreign country’s legal documentation.
Rilwanu Lukman was Secretary General of OPEC from 1st January 1995 to 31 December 2000. On 18th December 2008, he was appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, holding the office until March 2010.
Before then, he had been appointed minister of mines, power and steel from 1984 to 1985 during the tenure of General Muhammadu Buhari.
In 1986 he was appointed federal minister of petroleum resources, holding that position until February 1990. In that role, he was also chairman of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He served briefly as minister of foreign affairs between January and September 1990. He was chairman of the board of directors of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) between 1993–1994.
From 1986 he served eight consecutive terms as OPEC President. Lukman was elected OPEC Secretary-General on 22 November 1994, succeeding Dr. Subroto of Indonesia, whose three-year term ended on 30 June 1994.
Lukman was a compromise choice between two competing candidates, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili of Iran and Alirio Parra of Venezuela. He was re-elected for a second term in 1997, holding office until the end of 2000.
He was a central figure in the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to control oil prices early in 1999, followed by agreements to reduce production levels, which led to a surge in prices towards the end of the 1990s.
Mr. Lukman, was also the Chairman of the defunct Petroleum Industry Law Reform Committee, which later metamorphosed into the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly.