BEVERLY HILLS, October 27, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari will meet with some stakeholders from the Niger Delta on Tuesday, next week, inside the Presidential Villa, as part of efforts to end insurgency in the region.
This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, in his welcome address at the public presentation of a roadmap for the development of the nation’s oil and gas industry at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He revealed that the stakeholders that would attend the meeting would include traditional rulers from the region, security chiefs as well as ministers who were indigenes of the region.
“On Tuesday, the President will be meeting with the Niger Delta stakeholders of the oil-producing areas. It is important that we continue to sustain the institutional engagement and negotiations that are key to do this work,” he said.
“Our target is to have an incident reduction by 90 per cent by 2018 and to target zero militancy and shut down by middle of 2017.
“Whatever shutdown experienced by the middle of next year, we expect it to be production slippages and not militancy issues. We must resolve current militancy problems and bring back production to 2.2 million barrels per day. We are currently at 1.8 million.
“We will like to begin the year once Exxon Mobil brings back its production this week with 2.2 million barrels per day. But the reality is that 2.2 million barrels does not represent the capacity of this nation.
“We have the capacity to increase to three million barrels per day, the problem has been funding. We are working with the oil sector players to find solutions to our cash call problems.”
Story by Oputah David
