Nigeria's petroleum minister discusses subsidies, supply issues

Nigeria Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu has been working over the past week with officials from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) to ensure that an adequate supply of petroleum is kept flowing to not only the nation's cities, but also to both rural and outlying areas.

Over the holidays, Kachikwu and NNPC oversaw the trucking of more than 22 million liters of petroleum across Nigeria. Kachikwu also maintained contact with the petroleum-buying public about petroleum price modulation of subsidy removal and assured the public of petroleum availability and the efficiency of the refineries that produce it.

Kachikwu spoke on these issues during a recent working tour of Nigeria's Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Co.

"My commitment, and I think that is what the President’s commitment is, is to provide products at all times so that there is efficiency, and provide it at the least price possible and let it have some relationship with what the trends are," Kachikwu said.

Kachikwu also said as petroleum prices fluctuate, the Nigerian government would work to adjust prices based on international trends.

"We are not going to be fluctuating prices day to day; we are going to take an average and I think that today when you look at prices, we have no subsidy but prices remain low and that is what we need to do," he said.