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Adewale Sanyaolu
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr.Ibe Kachikwu, and the president of Saudi Aramco have concluded plans on strategies to deepen investment options in the mid and downstream sector.
The Ministry stated this on his tweeter handle during an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he held talks with the Saudi Arabia state oil corporation
Aramco is expanding downstream operations such as refining and petrochemicals production as part of its drive to become the world’s largest integrated energy firm.
The Ministry, on its Twitter feed, said Kachikwu and Aramco officials including its president discussed “areas of shared investment interests and existing viable investment options in the midstream and downstream sector”.
In another tweet, it said Kachikwu held talks with Saudi Arabia’s energy minister to “cement the budding interest to support Nigeria’s infrastructure development in the oil sector”.
The talks are the latest between Nigerian and Saudi officials. In February, President Muhammadu Buhari said, Nigeria was willing to reduce oil output to help secure higher prices after an envoy from Saudi Arabia called for better adherence to a deal on production cuts.
In November last year, Kachikwu had while playing host to the Minister of Oil and Energy for Saudi Arabia, Khalid Al Falih, said Nigeria would collaborate with Saudi Arabia to revamp its refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna.
Kachikwu said that Nigeria was currently tapping from the vast experiences of Saudi Arabia, adding that both countries would take strong business decisions on the matter in due course.
Commenting on some of the discussions which the Federal Government had with the delegation from Saudi Arabia with respect to refineries, Kachikwu said they looked at what the experience had been for the two countries.
“As you know, the refineries have been very close to my heart. So, I did bring up the issues of experiences that we’ve had so far and he shared his own experiences in terms of successes that they’ve had.
We’ve got an understanding to come look deeper into how they’ve done their own trajectory to get to where they are today and what experiences we can pick from there. No formal things agreed yet, but there is the willingness to collaborate and learn from one another.
These are usually very strong business decisions and at the appropriate time, we will nosedive into the details of that.”
Kachikwu further stated that the meeting with the Saudi delegation was with respect to the current outlook in the global crude oil market, adding that Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, as members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, need to look at the prevalent dynamics in the crude market.The minister added, “OPEC is a very strong voice in the oil sector, not just in terms of satisfying the needs of members but also in stabilising the market fundamentals for the rest of the world.
