- Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have battled to get their candidates to succeed El-Badri as secretary-general
- OPEC's output ceiling is one million barrels below its current daily production
- Oil cartel anticipates demand for OPEC crude will contract to 29.7 million barrels per day.
Second Failure to Name New Cartel Leader
OPEC -- which produces more than one third of the world's oil -- had in June already failed to reach a unanimous decision among its members over who should replace the Libyan.
El-Badri said of his re-appointment: "I enjoy my tenure here in the Secretariat. I try to work my best to serve our member countries."
Independent energy market analyst Karin Kneissl said keeping him on had been "the most pragmatic decision" OPEC could agree on.
"The secretary-general definitely has a role as a host, as a coordinator, but the secretariat as such can always function without a fully fledged practical agreement on who will take the post," she told AFP.
"It's not for the first time that we've seen a stalemate between a candidate coming from Iran and a candidate from Saudi Arabia."
OPEC members had failed to agree from three choices -- Majed al-Moneef, a former Saudi governor to OPEC, ex-Iranian oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari and former Iraq oil minister Thamir Ghadhban.
OPEC meanwhile decided to maintain its output ceiling, which stands at about one million barrels below its current daily production. OPEC is pumping out extra crude as Saudi Arabia compensates for lost Iranian output caused by Western sanctions on the Islamic Republic, and as other members look to maximize profits.
