Thamir Ghadhban

Thamir Abbas Ghadhban (Arabic: ثامر عباس غضبان) (born in Karbala, 16 April 1945) is an Iraqi civil servant and politician.

Thamir has specialised in the oil industry since the early 1970s. After the war in 2003 he became chief executive officer of the Ministry of Oil, and in mid of the following year he served as Interim Oil Minister in the interim government headed by interim prime minister Ayad Allawi. In 2005 he became a Parliament member and the head of one of the six committees, his committee was in charge of writing chapter four: Powers of the Federal Authorities in the permanent constitution Constitution of Iraq#Chapter Four: Powers of the Federal Authorities and one of three technocrats to draft Iraq's much debated oil and gas law, which is still waiting to be approved by the parliament. In late April 2006, there was strong speculation that he would again be appointed Minister of Oil, this time by the government of Nuri al-Maliki. In 2012 and 2016 he was nominated by Iraq to be secretary-general of OPEC. Up until early 2018 he served as the chairman of the prime minister's advisory committee. In April 2016 he was awarded the Japanese Imperial Decorations the Order of the Rising Sun, Silver Star, and Gold Star by Emperor Akihito of Japan, in recognition of his contribution to developing economic relations and promoting mutual understanding between Japan and Iraq. On 24 October 2018, Mr Ghadhban returned to serve as Deputy Prime Minister for Energy and Minister of Oil of Iraq, this time as part of the newly approved government of Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi .