The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has expressed the hope that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will achieve consensus on crude oil production freeze.
This was contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Garba Deen Muhammad, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, on Monday in Abuja.
Kachikwu said in spite of the stalemate on crude oil production freeze at oil producers meeting in Doha, OPEC would chart a way forward.
He added that OPEC must work at achieving a workable consensus on the issue by bringing everybody on the negotiating table.
He said: “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.
“Thank God that a committee is now in place to try and work towards getting everybody on board.”
The minister noted that once every member country of OPEC was brought on board, it would become easier to convince other major oil producers to sign-up to the freeze policy.
The policy, Kachikwu said, was designed to remedy lingering decline in the price of crude oil in the international market.
It is expected that the consensus issue being canvassed by Kachikwu will be pursued vigorously in the next OPEC Ministerial Meeting slated for June in Vienna, Austria.
