Ibe Kachikwu with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia in Doha in February

Nigeria’s oil minister, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu disclosed today that some members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries would meet on 20 March, with giant oil producer, Russia.

The meeting will hold in Moscow.

He spoke in Abuja today at the 25th Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum in Abuja with the theme: “Technological Advances in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Exploitation: Solutions to Global Oil Price Stability”.

He said the Moscow meeting is part of measures to stabilize crude oil prices and fine tune collaborative strategies.

Russian Energy Ministry clarified that although it was ready for talks between OPEC and other oil producers, the date and venue for the possible meeting was still being worked out.

Kachikwu has been part of the efforts, along with oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela to seek agreement with non-OPEC producers such as Russia on the need to freeze output to shore up the low oil prices, which Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari described last week as ‘unacceptable’. Several meetings have held in Doha in recent weeks.

Output freeze to January level is already in place, but the effect expected in the market is yet to manifest.