Buhari Approved Dialogue With Militants – Kachikwu

The minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu has revealed that President Buhari is in support of talks with the militants in the Niger Delta.

He said this on Monday, June 27, 2016, while speaking to Bloomberg in China.

The minister also said talks with the militants has been effective, adding that oil production has also increased.

Kachikwu further revealed that Nigeria’s crude oil production has increased to 1.9m barrels per day from the dropped output of 1.4m barrels per day.

The Daily Sun reports that he said “All the way from January right through to about April, we were producing an average of 1.9 to 2.2 million barrels, which is basically between the threshold of 2.2 that we budgeted for the year.

“Obviously in May and June, we suffered a lot of militant attacks, which took us down to about 1.3(million). We’ve managed to begin to lead conversations with the militants, a lot of engagement is taking place on the authorisation of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

Adding that “We’ve been able to get production up back to about 1.8/9 million barrels per day as of two days ago. We are continuing those conversations and by the time the Forcados line is repaired in July, we should be able to come back to our production ceiling for this year, of 2.2 million.

“Things are looking up, engagements are trending positively, we’ve been able to make in-routes into those conversations, but what is more important is the need to continue that momentum and the need to look to a long term solution to the Niger Delta crisis.”

Ibe Kachikwu visited Gbaramatu kingdom in Delta State, in June 2016, to meet with representatives of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).