The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has said the government is targeting about two billion dollars from the oil and gas lease licences renewal. Kachikwu disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen at the just concluded Nigerian International Petroleum summit, on Wednesday in Abuja. “We projected for the licences renewal probably around two billion dollars; right now, we are at about 1.2 billion dollars, 1.3 billion dollars. He said that although most of the licences were due for renewal between 2019 and 2020, the ministry decided to start early for some policy reasons. Kachikwu noted that early renewal was necessary for many companies to have the opportunity to access money from the banks for investment.

Source: Nigerian Tribune January 30, 2019 18:45 UTC