The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has called on member countries of the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA), to close ranks and bring their influence to bear on the global oil and gas production matrix.
Kachikwu spoke at a media briefing towards the 6th Africa Petroleum Congress and Exhibition (CAPE VI).
The African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA) was founded at the instance of Nigeria at a meeting held in Lagos in January 1987 with eight (8) African countries (Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroun, Congo, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria) in attendance. It was formed to serve as a cooperative framework for the promotion of common initiatives and projects related to management policies and strategies in all areas of the petroleum industry of the oil producing countries in Africa.
Nigeria will host the next Congress in March, 2016.
According to Kachikwu, ”APPA needs to meet more often, strategize more often and speak with one voice’’.
For him, it is a home-coming event as Nigeria was a key founding member of APPA and a promoter of the African Petroleum Congress. We hope that the event will highlight the nation’s oil and gas potential to a global audience and help showcase Nigeria’s small and medium scale oil and gas companies to other African countries and world at large’’.
