He was also the longest-serving Secretary General of OPEC, holding the position in 1994 and then 2007–2016, a total of 10 years and 1 month.

[1] OPEC selected Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo to succeed el-Badri as Secretary General, effective 1 August 2016.

[2] One of their predecessors was Omar el-Badri who held the position in 1970,[3] although OPEC does not disclose any relation between its two Libyan Secretaries General with the same family name.

Abdalla El-Badri was born in Ghemines, Libya, and began his oil industry career in 1965 with Esso.

He served as the Libyan Minister for Oil from 1990, the post being expanded to cover electricity in 1993.