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Mohammed Barkindo, a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is the leading candidate to emerge as the next Secretary-General of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to a report by Reuters on Tuesday.

Quoting inside sources, Reuters said Barkindo could be elected to replace Libya’s Abdalla Salem el-Badri during OPEC ministers’ meeting in Vienna on Thursday.

For more than three years, OPEC has been unable to replace el-Badri, whose tenure ended in 2012 after two terms in office, because of political rivalries between Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq. At OPEC’s last meeting in December, el-Badri’s term was extended until July this year.

Barkindo was nominated for the position by the Nigerian government. He served as OPEC’s acting Secretary-General in 2006 before handing over to Edmund Daukoru, who was Nigeria’s Minister of State for Energy under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Barkindo was NNPC’s GMD from 2009 to 2010.

If Barkindo’s appointment is confirmed, he would become the fourth Nigerian to be OPEC’s Secretary General. The other three Nigerians who severally served as OPEC Secretary-General were: Meshach Otokiti Feyide (1975-76), Rilwanu Lukman (1986-88 and 1995-2000), and Edmund Daukoru (January–December 2006).

OPEC, which consists of 13 member-countries, accounts for about 35 percent of the world’s oil production. With the influence of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, the cartel has kept oil production at high levels despite the slump in global oil prices in the last 24 months.