Ebun Francis
Ibe Kachikwu,the minister of state for Pertouleum affairs, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is very focused on resolving the militancy crises in the Niger Delta region and believes that by 2017, the country would have found a way out the crisis that currently engulfs the region. Kachikwu spoke to bloomberg in Tokyo, Japan, where he is currently attending the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) conference.
According to the Minister, “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, we are working hard, we are seeing solutions come up, we are seeing acceptance to what we are doing.
“But again like every other town where you have disruptions and conflict, it takes a while to get to a stage where everybody is comfortable.
“I’m positive that we would move up from where we are, hoping we can end up the year, far in excess of 2 million barrels, and closer to the 2.2 million that we envisage we should be in.
“I am also confident that in 2017, we would have less disruptions to our oil production, because then we should have found a formula to seek peace in the Niger Delta.”