OPEC’s Ultimate Fighter: Iran’s Ardebili is dead

*Envoy dies of brain hemorrhage

Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, who died on Saturday, was one of the ultimate OPEC negotiators. He was first named Iran’s OPEC governor in 1985.

He survived a bombing that left him badly wounded, shrugged off accusations of arms smuggling, and defended Iran’s oil interests through war and sanctions.

Kazempour — steely, charming, and combative — was Iran’s envoy to the OPEC oil cartel almost uninterruptedly from 1985.

He was a constant in international energy circles even as administrations in Tehran came and went, serving under both reformist President Mohammad Khatami and hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In oil affairs, Iran played a weak hand well.

SOURCE: Bloomberg