Uche Okobi, Lagos
Dr.
Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said that
Nigeria would increase crude oil production to meet local demand and not to
essentially sell it in the international market.
Kachikwu
explained that the oil output would remain unchanged from the January level of
2.2 million barrels a day, but export would
be reduced to focus on local refining and supply of petroleum products to the
Nigerian market, which requires at least 500,000 barrels a day.
Nigeria is a net
importer of refined petroleum products, in spite of being one of the world’s
largest producers of crude oil, on account of low refining capacity and an oil
and gas industry riddled with corruption and complex deals.
President
Muhammadu Buhari appointed Kachikwu as head of the NNPC, the state-owned oil
monopoly, to reform the industry. Under Kachikwu, the moribund refineries have
been resuscitated and petroleum products supplied to the local market.
The
minister, during an interview with reporters in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday, also
announced Nigeria’s support of Saudi Arabia and Russia in freezing oil
production, while giving Iran and Iraq a way out to regain some of their lost
market shares due to sanctions and war.
“Nigeria
will continue to look at the possibility of increasing production, not to sell
it, because we have local consumption that is essential for us. Right now, we
are not even exporting the quantity that OPEC has given us,” he said.
Saudi
Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar agreed last week to keep production at
January levels, as long as others followed suit, in an effort to revive prices
from a 12-year low.
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