Minister of
State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, has assured that Nigeria would
find the formula for peace in the Niger Delta region of the country by 2017.
Kachikwu, who
is currently at the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Producer-Consumer conference in
Tokyo, Japan, said Nigeria was at 2.1 million barrels of oil production per
day, before the renewed hostilities by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
Speaking to
Bloomberg on the “turmoil” in the region, Kachikwu said: “Well, I won’t call it
turmoil anymore, I would call it a bit of disruption”.
“We’ve passed
the turmoil stage, we have moved from 1.4 million barrels a day to 1.9.We were
at 2.1 before we had the last incident.
“It is work in
progress, we are putting every energy we can. President Muhammadu Buhari is
very focused on trying to find solutions to these problems, and we are working
hard on it. We are seeing solutions come up, we are seeing acceptance to what
we are doing.
Kachikwu said
he was optimistic that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
deal will become a reality to push oil prices to $50 per barrel, and above. The
Minister, who presided over OPEC’s 168th ordinary meeting in Vienna, also
stated that a failure to reach a deal will crunch prices below $45 a barrel.
Meanwhile,
about 224 firms have bidded to purchase and lift Nigerian crude oil grades for
the period 2016/2017.
Successful
companies would participate in the lifting of about 700, 000 barrels per day of
crude oil on offer by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) on Free
on Board (FOB) basis subject to the execution of sales and purchase agreement
with buyers.
A statement
from the Corporation said the event which was broadcast live on a national
television network had in attendance representatives of the bidding companies
and officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (NEITI), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB),
and some members of the civil society as observers.
Speaking at
the event, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said that
the public bid opening was in consonance with the transparency and
accountability agenda of President Buhari in the oil and gas industry.
‘’We do
everything transparently in NNPC and also ensure fairness in all the
transactions that we do. There is nothing that is hidden just as you have seen
today’’, Baru stated.
He indicated
that the exercise was targeted at getting competitive bids from refiners, and
also big traders, as well as companies that have made substantial investment in
the oil and gas industry particularly in the downstream sub-sector in Nigeria.
The GMD
dismissed insinuation that Nigerian crude grades were receiving low patronage
in the international market noting that the demand for Nigerian crude remained
high because of its low sulphur content.
The 26
Nigerian crude oil grades on offer include: Bonny Light, Forcados Blend, EA
Blend, Bonga, Qua Iboe Light, Yoho Blend, Erha and Escravos Light. Others
are; Pennington Light, Agbami, Brass
Blend, Abo, Oyo, Okono Blend, Amenam Blend, Akpo Condensate and Usan. The rest
include: Atam Blend, Okwori, Okoro, Ima, Ukpokiti, Obe, Okwuibome, Ebok and
Asaratoru
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