Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum on Monday listed seven key implementation strategies to boost the petroleum industry and enable export of refined products by 2019.
The minister spoke at the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum between the Private Sector and the Economic Management Team (EMT) in Abuja.
Represented by the Senior Technical Adviser in the ministry, Mr. Johnson Awoyemi, Kachikwu said peace and security in the Niger Delta region is crucial to the programme.
He also mentioned policy and regulation, business environment and investment drive, transparency and efficiency, stakeholder management and international coordination as primary concerns of the ministry.
The others, he said, were engaging in gas revolution as well as increasing refineries and local production capacity.
“Oil and gas will drive diversification but the drop in oil production to 1.56 billion barrels per day from the annual estimate of 2.2 billion barrels per day will negatively affect growth,’’ Kachikwu said.