OpeOluwani Akintayo
20 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has said he felt optimistic about the prospects in the 2018 oil market.
He made this known in the newly released Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC bulletin for December 2017-January 2018.
The Minister who spoke at the 173rd Meeting of the OPEC conference held in Vienna last November, said his basis for declaring faith in the 2018 oil market, lies on the impact of the oil cut which has resulted in the reduction of the oil glut.
“If you look at the depletion of reserves that is going on, if you look at the reduction in the rate of growth of shale and the rest, if you look at the tighter performance in terms of conformity with the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’, it all leads to the fact that 2018 should be ok,” he said.
He added that although many countries are going through hard economic times and may not find the oil cut convenient, however, he added that emphasis should rather be on how to boost prices.
“A lot of us are going through difficult times in our economies and we need the volumes, but the reality is, if you get the volumes you lose the price, and at the end of the day you are back to square one. So I think we are all committed to staying the course. We are going to do everything we can to make sure it works.”
He also stressed that he liked the monitoring concept related to the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, JMMC, and the Joint Technical Committee, JTC.
“The concept brings confidence to the market,” he said. “It means that apart from the usual resolutions we have during our general assemblies, we are able to put an enforcement team behind it.” “I think it has worked very well for everybody,” he added.
