Iran Assumes OPEC Presidency

BBC reports that Iranian petroleum minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi starts his post on January 1:

Iran will assume the presidency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) for the first time in 36 years.

The country's oil minister was elected as Opec president at a one-day meeting of the group, which is made up of 12 oil producing states.

Apparently OPEC cares as little as Ahmadinejad does about Mir-Kazemi's inexperience:

Mir-Kazemi lacks direct oil and gas industry experience but has served as commerce minister and has an industrial engineering background, likely helping him with his main task—to manage and prioritise between projects amid Iran's financial and technological constraints. He will prioritise continued efforts to arrest mature oil decline and raise production from new and producing fields, as well as boosting the gas output and petrochemical capacity, but is likely to play down Iran's gas export efforts amid the continuing international isolation.

After all, a political post is a political post.
Right?

Technorati Tag: Masoud Mir-Kazemi and OPEC.