Kachikwu said that it is now urgent to review these laws in view of the challenges bedevilling the sector, top of which he said is militancy which has reduced production from about 2.2 million barrels per day to about 1.5million barrels, crimping gas to power plants and contributing to polluting the environment. In addition, he lamented that the Niger Delta crisis has resulted in loss of lives, high cost of operations, fuel shortage and environmental degradation. “We need to produce extra 1.1 million barrels per day to be able to catch up”, he added. EIA expects Nigerian oil production to remain depressed through 2017 as a result of militant attacks. “But whatever message they want to convey, they must stop destroying pipelines and use the same level of aggression used to destroy the pipelines to the negotiating table”, Kachikwu said.
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“We need to complete these between now and October, but the problem is bureaucracy. That is going to be very tough, but we are going to work on that”.
Analysts said that concerns over oil production in Venezuela were also impacting markets. The roadmap will provide comprehensive gas policy, unlock gas potentials, transit Nigeria from gas flare penalty regime to flared gas commercialisation and shift focus from government built to investor built infrastructure.
He said a much-delayed petroleum industry bill (PIB) to overhaul the industry would be split in three parts but discussions with parliament were ongoing.
“OPEC controls only 30 per cent”. I don’t see that happening.
“While it is tempting to dismiss the OPEC chatter as a non-factor meant to talk up prices, we are also resigning to a momentum shift in which our technical indicators are flashing green lights in favor of further crude price rallies of at least a couple of dollars a barrel”, said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates. “Well yes if we succeed in having conversations with Russian Federation, the United States of America and Mexico”.
He went on to note that “If there is a handshake with individuals across the aisle, that would be the beginning”, in reference to the possibility that individual OPEC members could agree to yet another attempt to agree on a freeze.
Omotowa, who was the chairman at the conference, has been the Managing Director for NLNG for some five years and will be handing over to the incoming Managing Director, Mr.
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He said local refineries would be scaled up to attain full capacity from the present 60 per cent and added that by 2018, the country would reduce importation of products and finally cease product import by 2019. More recently, the Nigerian government announced it will resume payouts to the militants under the amnesty programme.
