LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will fly to Saudi Arabia to discuss with King Salman ways to stabilise crude oil prices, the presidency said in a statement on Sunday.
Buhari will also fly to Doha after his visit to the kingdom to discuss oil price stability with Qatar’s ruler, the statement said.
“Ongoing efforts by Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to achieve greater stability in the price of crude oil exports are expected to be high on the agenda of discussions,” the presidency said before the trip later this week.
Nigeria’s oil minister, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, met his Qatari counterpart Mohammed al-Sada on Sunday, the Qatari Oil Ministry said in a statement. Qatar holds the current OPEC presidency.
Nigeria has been suffering from a slump in oil prices eroding vital oil revenues and whacking its currency.
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela said last week after talks in Doha that they were ready to freeze production at January levels if other producers do the same. Iran welcomed the deal but stopped short of saying it would itself freeze production at January levels and its deputy oil minister said on Saturday it would increase production soon.
Buhari would also meet businessmen from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to invest in Africa’s top oil producer, the statement said.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing, Felix Onuah and Rania El Gamal; Editing by Alison Williams)
