Ibe Kachikwu, minister of State for Petroleum Resources, made this known at the 10th Nigerian Association for Energy Economics/International Association for Energy Economics Conference in Abuja. The theme of the conference is “Energy, Economy and the Environment: The Interplay of Technology, Economics and Public Policy”.
Kachikwu, who was represented by Bello Gusau, executive secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, said: “In the past two weeks, we have opened discussions with some of these refiners and government is assiduously working to ensure that this initiative is carefully implemented without polluting the environment. This will not only provide legal jobs and sources of income for the populace, but will also contribute to our national policy initiative target”
The ministry of petroleum resources is focusing on seven key initiatives including introducing new policies that would drive the growth of the oil and gas sector. It is also proving enabling business environment to attract investors; unleashing investment options to support forex and improving our domestic capacity for local petroleum products’ production and attaining self-sufficiency by 2018.
It has also sustain engagements with oil-producing communities to attain zero militancy in the Niger Delta region by the end of the year 2017. The sixth is to increase efficiency in the industry and automate business processes to account for every drop of oil that is produced in the country.”
The last key focus area of his ministry was to adopt a sustainable stakeholder management framework that would address the various issues and circumstances in the sector.
“Our engagements in the Niger Delta is already yielding very significant results with the absence of any major incident on our facilities. A comprehensive and holistic development is currently being worked out with all stakeholders and government parastatals, including the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Amnesty Office and the various state governments,” he said adding that the first installment for the payment of the cash call arrears by the government to international oil companies as agreed between both parties would be done by the end of this month even though he did not disclose the amount to be paid.
Apr 25, 2017 @ 1130 GMT
