Minister of state for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has replaced Diezani Alison-Madueke as the conference president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Owing to his status as the Minister of Petroleum, President Muhammadu Buhari was expected to be named as the head of the OPEC conference.
However, a recent update on the OPEC platform as named Kachikwu, the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as the new head of OPEC.
Speaking in Lagos on Wednesday, Kachikwu revealed his plans for OPEC.
“I think the key thing will be obviously crude oil price. There is a lot of sensitivity on that, $42 currently and with potential to go down if Iran throws their barrels into the field.”
“My first target as I meet with ministers one-on-one is to try to delay Iran’s flooding of the market to the last quarter of next year. I will be talking with Iran’s oil minister on that so that we can stabilise the price.
“Maybe, hopefully, by the first or second quarter of next year, we will begin to see how that statement can now embolden us to go and begin to address removing the 1.5mbpd production that is lying in the market internationally.”
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