Saudis nominate Al Moneef as Opec chief

Saudi Arabia nominated its Opec (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) governor, Majid Al Moneef, as a candidate for secretary-general of the oil-producer group, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Opec's current secretary-general, Libya's Abdullah Al Badri, will end his second three-year term at the end of this year, after first taking over the post on January 1, 2007. Al Moneef would be replaced in his current post by Yasser Al Mufdi, who works at the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the person said, declining to be identified because the change hasn't been made public. The ministry's media adviser was unavailable for comment. Al Mufdi was Saudi Arabia's Opec national representative from 2003 to 2009 and was most recently manager of the long-range planning department at Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the state-run oil company known as Saudi Aramco. Article continues below Each of Opec's 12 member nations appoints a governor and a national representative to the group. The governor sits on Opec's board, helping to manage the organisation and its annual budget, while the representative's duties include analysing the oil market.