The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to increase oil production in order to take part in the $14 trillion investment opportunity in the global oil market.
OPEC secretary general, Haitham al-Ghais, who made this call yesterday, noted that despite the pushback on oil and gas, the world would require about $14 trillion investments from now till 2035 to be able to meet global demand, a statement by NNPC spokesperson, Olufemi O. Soneye, indicated.
Speaking during a courtesy visit to the group chief executive officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, at the NNPC Towers on Wednesday, al-Ghais revealed that OPEC agrees with NNPC’s view of broad-minded perspective on energy, opposing the perspective being advocated in some quarters that consider certain energy sources as adverse.
He reiterated OPEC’s commitment to work closely with the NNPC Ltd) to achieve the nation’s aspirations to attract investments and grow production.
The OPEC secretary general urged NNPC Ltd to do everything to tap into that opportunity to raise its production to continue to be a reliable source of energy to the world.
“We will continue to ensure that the market is stable. The global market has to be stable in order for Nigeria to be able to attract investors. If there’s volatility, if there’s no stability in the market, it will only create havoc for everybody, whether it’s a producer or consumer country. So, we will continue to do that in OPEC. We count on Nigeria’s support”, the OPEC helmsman said.
In his remarks, Kyari said NNPC Ltd was working very hard to recover lost production and provide the right fiscal environment to attract investments.
He expressed appreciation to OPEC for its support to Nigeria, adding that NNPC Ltd will continue to support the organisation in whatever way it could.