(Ecofin Agency) - Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Emmanuel Kachikwu (photo), has said that crude oil prices, which have been hanging around $55 a barrel since early last month, will rise by about $10 in the coming months.

“Ultimately, the effects over the next few months will get us to where we want to be, which is in the mid-$60s,” Kachikwu said in a Bloomberg interview.

Let’s be reminded that crude oil prices rose at the end of November and in early December following the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC’s decision to cut output and ease the glut in the global market.

Nigeria was exempted from this deal due to militant attacks on oil installations. The West African country is now looking to boost production as it recuperates from the attacks.

According to Kachikwu, the country is now pumping about 1.5 million bpd and the government is improving its arrangement with communities in the Niger Delta and once output “returns to about 1.8 million barrels a day, then we’ll begin to look at OPEC asking us to do some cuts. There’s a willingness of every OPEC member to contribute. When oil prices reach the mid $60s a barrel, they will struggle to go higher,” he said.

Anita Fatunji