The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has announced the election of Nigerian oil industry expert Mohammed Barkindo as the new Secretary General of the organisation. An OPEC spokesperson said Barkindo’s term will start on August 1 and will last three years.

Barkindo, who was elected by OPEC oil ministers during their meeting on Thursday in Vienna, has been a key face of the Nigerian oil industry for the past decade, during which various governments tried and effectively failed to reform national oil company NNPC.

OPEC countries have since 2012 been looking for a replacement for Libya’s Abdullah al-Badri, who was elected acting secretary-general in December until the end of July after serving full terms.

Barkindo led the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from 2009 to 2010 and served as acting secretary-general of OPEC in 2006 after the original Nigerian nominee, junior oil minister Edmund Daukouro, took over the rotating OPEC presidency.

•Photo showsOPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo.