Kachikwu seeks consensus among OPEC members    

The minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday assured that despite the stalemate on crude oil production freeze, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will continue to work to achieve consensus for output freeze among oil producers.

Addressing newsmen after the protracted meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers held under the aegis of oil-producing countries ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, Kachikwu stressed that OPEC must work at achieving a workable consensus on the issue by bringing everybody on the negotiating table.

“We are just going to work at it. It is a supply and demand issue and we need to consult and bring everybody into the circle and thank God that a committee is now in place to try and work towards getting everybody on board,’’ Kachikwu said.

The Minister noted that once every member country of OPEC is brought on board, it would become easier to convince other major oil producers to sign-up to the freeze policy which is designed to remedy lingering decline in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The meeting had 18 countries in attendance namely: Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Iraq, Mexico, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Angola, Bahrain, Indonesia, Venezuela and United Arab Emirates.

 According to a statement from NNPC signed by Garba Deen Muhammad, its group general manager group public affairs division, it is expected that the consensus issue being canvassed by Kachikwu will be pursued vigorously in the next OPEC ministerial meeting slated for June, 2016 in Vienna, Austria.