Buhari To Remain As Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said he will continue to be the Petroleum minister portfolio in his yet to be announced Cabinet.

Buhari said, “I intend to remain the minister of petroleum resources,” in an interview on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He also said that a minister of state will oversee the day-to-day running of the petroleum sector.

Speaking to CNBC Africa on Buhari’s announcement, Dolapo Oni, Head of Energy research said the president wants to be in charge but he will need to delegate power to a little more people. He mentioned that the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Minister of State for Petroleum will mostly be responsible for the day to day running of the industry. He also said Buhari’s purpose might be for the policy direction of the petroleum industry.

On the re-evaluation of the President’s decision to further break down the NNPC in 18 months, Oni said it was expected as some of the decisions will require a legislative process and he agreed that some arms still have to be split which will take a regulation change. He believes that Buhari can achieve a lot more transparency in the NNPC with him in charge.

Speaking on the production of oil in the Niger-Delta, he mentioned that the production of 2 million barrels of oil per day have been planned for the month of October due to the relative peace in the region. He said more manpower can be deployed to the region for effective production.

Oni concluded by saying that the realistic target for Oil production for the next four years is 2.5million barrels per day which should be maintained.