and it's that leeward that not only was not held in check, but was given a green light in the last five or six years, in which in my view is the principal problem behind what we've seen in the economic community. >> to that end, what new banking

regulations do you support, if any? >> well, let me just say that i've written somewhat extensively on the subject in any one, i will be happy to provide anyone any information in that regard that you may want, all written before taken this job. [laughter] and i'limbert not expected to comment extensively on it, but i will say i think the role of independent regulator is essential. i think regulator that pays attention to leveraging issues and one of the footnote aspects of all of this is we need to have different types of people brought into government, particularly those that are mathematically oriented, particularly cpas. because finance after all is about numbers.

and one of them is aspects of the regulatory environment was there with no one out there whether you talk about certain banking institutions or certain hedge fund operations that ask the questions, where was the money? and that's kind of something acpa does by nature. and so i'limbert very inclined to acpa organization. the member of her audience asks, is sarah palin qualified to be president? >> well, i think that's a case that all candidates have to make. i consider one of the most interesting characters in the republican mice. i think she has every right to present herself for any office in the land. and she certainly gained a lot of experience in the last election and she has a base that has to be respect it.

>> okay, we are just about out of time. but before you last question, which is funny i swear. we have a couple of important matters to take care of. first of all let me remind our members of future speakers on monday november 23rd ambassador nancy g. brinker, founding chair of the susan g. komen for the cure will address the controversy over new federal breast cancer screening, a special speaker's new conference at 12 noon on november 30th, prince albert the second of manukau, will address a national press club luncheon. december 4th, joy cinnamon cofounder of the studio will be here. a second i buy to present our desk with the traditional and much coveted national press club mug. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> we've got one more question

for you. you've still got one more to go. does your experience as a wrestler have any bearing on your role outside of the neh? [laughter] >> well, i have a view that all sports are equal except wrestling. but the most equalitarian circle in the world is the circle in the wrestling mats. but sports teaches you a lot of things. one is to compete with rules, with fairness. but wrestling with ideas can be a tougher challenge sometimes been wrestling against the sinuous somebody else. [laughter] [applause]

[applause] >> i'd like to thank you all for coming today. i also like to thank national press club staff members melinda cooke, pat nelson, and show him for organizing today's lunch. also thanks to the national press club library for its research. the video archive of today's lunch is provided by the national press club broadcast operations center. and our events are available for free download on itunes as well as on our website. nonmembers may purchase transcripts, audio, and video tapes by calling (202)262-7598 or e-mailing us at archives@press.org. for more information of the press club go to our website at www..press.org. thank you and we are adjourned.

>> thanksgiving day on c-span. at timeclock eastern bill clinton is on hand to present statements tilburg with this year's liberty medal from the national constitution center. also stanley greenberg and alex castellanos, part of a panel assessing the obama presidency. and from the jfk library and museum, and nick burns and leslie on terrorism and the clear weapons. at five, hip-hop artist and actor ludicrous on youth mentoring. and later. thanksgiving day on c-span. >> on this vote, the are 60, denise r. 39, three fifths of

the senators having voted in the affirmative, the notion is agreed to. without though, the senate visit health care to the floor. starting monday into december, follow the entire debate and how the bill would affect access to medical care. the public option, taxes, abortion, and medicare. life here on c-span 2, the only network that brings you the senate gabble to gavel. >> the oil minister says now is not the time for opec to increase production because the global economy is still weak. he spoke at an event hosted by the u.s. energy association. this is almost 50 minute. >> i'm very worthington executive director of the united date energy association and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our newsmaker with dr. lukman, the minister petroleum resources for the federal of nigeria. i must also welcome c-span for covering our event this morning.

dr. lukman was one of the most respected energy experts, oil and gas experts, anywhere in the world. a few of his key appointments have included serving as secretary general of opec for six years, serving as president of opec for nine sessions, a special advisor to the minister or to the president of nigeria for oil and yes. minister of oil and affairs, founder and chairman of the african petroleum producers association. our newsmaker session this morning is on the record and the way will proceed is that dr. lukman will make some remarks and then we'll have time for questions and answers and try to be done and finished by 12:00. i'd also like to thank bp as our sponsor of the usda and with no further do please join me in

welcoming dr. lukman, the minister of petroleum resources from the republic of nigeria. >> thank you very matched for your generous introduction. i am very happy to be with you this morning. we are a bit disoriented due to the jet lag,. i thank you for having me and my team this opportunity. i introduce my colleague, otherwise dr. energy. potential advisor.

we have someone from the embassy. we have assistant. dr. joe myers from an lpc. ps the secretary of oil and gas from the community. and the good ladies from nta. and of course the assistant. i don't know what you would like me to talk about. i suppose we will talk about energy generally and maybe petroleum in particular. but maybe i should tell you why we are here in washington. we can specifically to meet up with the world bank. as you know, we in nigeria have

taken a very important exercise in trying to reform our oil and gas industry, which in our view is long overdue. nigeria is to restructure the industry and put it at an even keel and make it more consistent with national practices. and one of the major ingredients of this exercise is to create a more robust national oil company with nnpc into a company which will operate with purely commercial undertaking the distinct that will explain which is kind of confusing, involving

regulatory as well as policy in addition to the responsible for commercial operation of national oil and gas company. we, as you know, nigeria is really well endowed. we are number one in both oil and gas phase by everyone's consent. at the moment, we have proven reserves of oil of around 37 or so billion barrels of oil in the ground. we have the capacity to produce 3.5, 3.6 million barrels. and the reserves is about 187 cubic feet. and we are a member of opec, we

joined in 1975. we very much are interested in developing our gas resources, which should not be fully exploited in the past. i imagine because we recognize that gas is a future energy and it is very important. and quite apart from the fact that oil resource and gas is equivalent will be simply has been argued that we are more of a past country because they gas we are developing its associated yes, a way to deliberately.

if we do explore a little bit more gas than we have right now. we are a very key member of the organization of exploited countries, to which we, along with 13, 14 other countries, try to play our part in the national oil market by attempting to order it oil prices by supply and demand. and to soothe the national configuration of the oil economy. we of course have, i think, mistakenly of wrongfully been accused of being a cartel. we are not because no cartel behaves like we do, increasing

production and prices go high and prices go blow in order to moderate the international market for the benefit of the reduces and consumers. america, the united states is one of our major trading partners. we supply an essential part of the oil in the united states. of course, a little oil also goes to europe, so half and half, europe and north america. and finally to other various trading arrangements. we believe that the current market situation is one that has to be handled with such a mind

of delicacy because in the process of recovery and intel it's fully recovered, we will have to be careful how much oil we put in the market retries if we're not careful then it could try the prices very low, like they went as low as $30 a barrel at the height of the economic problems the world experienced over the past year or so. we are hopeful that the recovery of the national oil will continue. in which case, we will be able to reduce an export more. we have, i'm sure you have heard about the recent problems in nigeria, which resulted in

serious demolition of our capacity to produce and damage to our oil infrastructure. but with the recent fortune and occurrence of the amnesty we are hoping that we will be able to repair and put back some of the infrastructure was has been damaged by the insurgency. but this will take a little bit of time. but be that as it may, we are hoping that it will resume the growth of our oil and gas industry, to the greater benefit of our country. oil is very important aspect of our national economy. we are very dependent on oil for

export earnings, with a 90% foreign-exchange comes from oil. substantial part of government revenue in that percentage more than 80%, 90% comes from oil. what is very important for our country. and we are trying various programs and devices to diversify the national economy so we will eventually be less dependent on oil and gas ultimately. within the oil, to diversify variously through the downstream and midstream activities of finding and things like special chemical are very much involved with the development of our gas

associate to, for instance, apply in the countries to the west african bypass land. we are having major energy production. we have two new analogies and importantly the proposed pipeline project which will deliver hopefully nigerian guys to military and to nigeria. and we are also of course internationally speaking a very act as member of a ppa, in which we try to coordinate a policies and that entities of african

producers of the trillium. like we do in outback, we are getting a number of countries and approaches so that the oil industry can play a real meaningful party in the development of the evolution of the international economy. i could go on and on and on if you let me. but perhaps it would be more appropriate if people have questions that they want us to address so we can spend a little bit of time more useful on subjects rather than for me to ramble on and on and on. >> very good, thank you, sir. any questions for dr. lukman. please identify yourselves. >> newswires, thank you for taking the time.

he said the current market situation needed to be handled delicately and opec needed to take care and how much oil is put into the market. are you saying that -- can you expand on exactly what you mean i'm not. are you talking about having oil prices go too high for the economic recession? and in light of that, can you indicate what opec, which will be recommending that opec to? >> what i meant was that from our calculations and computations, the international economy is in the process of recovering from what happened a year or so ago. and it would be full hearted for us to assume this international economy is out of the waves.

without pumping oil without light or hindrance. we know the prices have risen from a really low level of $30 per barrel to around 70, $80 per barrel now. but the indications that the stock level isn'tlow enough, but we're going to the winter season so we have to be careful to see that we don't unbalance the market by pumping too much oil. on the other hand, we are anxious that they will give us as much oil as they can usefully consume. to fire the economy. so it is a question of balancing. as to what would be good to do

in rwanda in the next month, i don't know, what we've done from experience, what opec does is to look at the whole picture, the whole situation and take their best judgment with decision the market is calling for from what is available to us at the time. and in this particular case, anything could happen between now and a month's time. my recommendation is look at the facts at the time of the meeting. >> my first question is regarding your talks regarding china national oil country and there's a quite a bit of concern about whether operators in

nigeria and what it will entail. other countries oil-producing country have been diversifying into various fields, chemical, refinery. is nigeria looking at doing that? with a lot of refinery assets for sale may united states. there's a lot of chemical assets also in europe. also as part of your plan to bring oil to algeria, to europe, and expand your export markets. >> thank you very much. the education exercise will include a lot of things you mentioned. and we will see that it is properly put in place with the permitted they will be expected to go into the international oil companies and invest in an oil expiration and production of oil and gas outside the national borders. but also getting involved in downstream activities of various types, including petrochemicals

and filling stations, anything that will make its presence in the international arena more complete. and the chinese, of course you mentioned, they are very much present in nigeria trying to look for opportunities and possibilities for participating in our oil and gas industry, like a lot of people and we welcome participation by other people. we are very well endowed with western company, exxon mobil, chevron, oil and shell, maybe a mix of bringing them to balance the equation. >> welcome to this administration, sir. i am from the voice of america.

i've two questions. recently the military of the niger delta has started that the region now is stable. will that be assessment also that from the point of view it's stable enough to do business with. can we continue to do so without any similar previous concerns that they had? that is one. the second question is the refineries in nigeria. where are we in terms of facing the refineries in nigeria? thank you. >> well, the niger delta has been a long one for us as a country. and we are very delighted that amnesty the president has put forward is working. and we there are major insurgent

groups and the government is in the process of the reintegration into the nigerian society. and it is our hope that this arrangement will hold and develop eventually into a morris quest and situation. investments will continue, both from the national oil company and newcomers to continue to grow our oil and gas industry in a more peaceful atmosphere. the refineries again is a very disheartening story because up to now, for instance, we are talking out two or three refineries are at a function. why because the facilities that are supposed to deliver oil to

these refineries have been very badly vandalized. and nnpc and the government are in the process of repairing these to enable us to deliveries delivered to the refineries. unfortunately, we are not managing our families as well as we should have done in the past. we are not come a for instance, maintaining and therefore we are in various stages of lap addition, which is to be correct date and. because of the long period of neglect, the refineries, i personally think they will be able to perform up to the first go and start them up again.

we will have to ensure that they perform a lot better than they did in the past because we are probably aware and trying to deregulate the downstream dirt of the oil and gas industry because it has been questioned by the government quite a lot in subsidy and quite a lot for not enabling the cities to benefit from these subsidy regimes. so we need to remove the subsidy, not only to enable our own to perform better, but to accrue from the government national advice and to sell and market and regulate an economy that can