Nigeria can't survive without oil revenue - Buhari

28-10-2016 

Despite the crash in the prices of crude oil in the interna­tional market, the sector still remains critical in get­ting Nigeria out of its eco­nomic problems, President Muhammdu Buhari has de­clared.
He said that the country’s current economic recession cannot be surmounted with­out recourse to oil and gas earnings despite the slump in their prices in the global market.
The President added that despite the efforts of his ad­ministration to diversify the economy through agri­culture and solid minerals, there is still a need for a vir­ile and efficient oil and gas industry to take care of “our foreign exchange require­ments.”
 He spoke at the Pres­idential Villa during the launch of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Road­map tagged: “The 7 Big Wins”, an initiative of the Ministry of Petroleum Re­sources.
According to Buhari, “the petroleum industry remains critical to the Nigerian econ­omy of today and of the future despite our current challenges. The golden era of high oil pric­es may not be here now, but oil and gas resources remain the most immediate and practi­cal keys out of our present eco­nomic crisis.
“Oil and gas still remain a critical enabler for the suc­cessful implementation of our budget as well as the source of funds for laying a strong foun­dation for a new and more di­versified economy.
“As important as it is to en­suring that agriculture, solid minerals and other critical sec­tors of the economy are sup­ported to grow and contribute more to the national develop­ment, we still need a virile and efficient oil and gas industry to take care of our foreign ex­change requirements.
“This Roadmap reflects the vision and aspiration of this administration for this sector and I urged you all to deliver on the expectations contained in the Petroleum Industry Roadmap. This is a national imperative and a core thrust of our economic policy.
“Therefore, the task be­fore the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is to maximise the potential and opportunities across the whole range of the oil and gas industry to stimu­late our economy in spite of the current challenges”.
Buhari lamented the res­tiveness in the Niger Delta re­gion, which, he noted, had ad­versely affected oil production. However, he assured Nigerians that measures were being tak­en to address the agitation in the region and tasked the Pe­troleum Ministry to instill transparency and accounta­bility in its operations.
Addressing journalists af­ter the launch, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, explained the government’s efforts to curb militancy in the region.
He revealed that on Tues­day (next week), President Bu­hari will meet with the stake­holders in oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta.
Kachikwu said that it is im­portant for the government to continue to sustain the institu­tional engagement and negoti­ations that are “key to do this work. 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 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.”
Kachikwu said the min­istry has outlined some pro­grammes to attract foreign investments in the sector. He announced that “already we have signed MoUs close to $80 billion in China and we are in the process of finalising $15 billion worth of crude with India”.