TEHRAN, May 20 (MNA) – OPEC officials gathered in its headquarters to express condolence over the passing of Iran’s OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili.

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo also attended the ceremony. “Hossein was as a gallant representative of his esteemed country IR Iran and a longstanding pillar of OPEC. He was an accomplished oil technocrat and an astute diplomat,” Barkindo said, according to OPEC's official Twitter account. 

Kazempour Ardebili, 68, passed away in a Tehran hospital on Saturday two weeks after he slipped into a coma due to a brain hemorrhage.