Buhari Plans Frontier Basins’ Exploration
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said that the next step towards the achievement of a more prosperous Nigeria is to ensure the intensification of efforts at the exploration of the nation’s frontier basins.
Addressing a mammoth crowd at the flag-off of the spud-in of Kolmani River-II Well, Gongola Basin, Upper Benue Trough in Bauchi State, he named the basins as follows: Chad Basin, Gongola Basin, Anambra Basin, Sokoto Basin, Dahomey Basin, Bida Basin and Benue Trough. The site of the Kolmani River-II well is between Bauchi and Gombe States and the respective state governors were present in the ceremony.
His words: “Our next level is to ensure that exploration efforts in all our frontier basins, namely Chad Basin, Gongola Basin, Anambra Basin, Sokoto Basin, Dahomey Basin, Bida Basin and Benue Trough are intensified to usher in prospects for more prosperous Nigeria. We have worked hard to fulfill our promises and have succeeded in laying the foundation for a strong, virile and prosperous Nigeria through the economic recovery and growth plan.”
“A key execution priority of the ERGP is ensuring national energy sufficiency and this cannot be achieved through hydrocarbon resources from the conventional basins alone. Therefore exploration in our frontier basins is a national imperative and a core policy thrust that must be sustained. It is on this note that I directed the NNPC to aggressively intensify its exploration campaign in the inland basins to discover new hydrocarbon reserves that will boost oil and gas production and extend economic benefits to the people within the North-East and the nation at large.”
Speaking at the ceremony, the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, explained that as an hydrocarbon producing country, Nigeria needs to sustain its production but since reserves cannot be replenished, there must be searches for more reserves. But he dropped the hint that “exploring frontier basin, areas that have not been explored, are normally very risky and costly, and normally, the private sector would not want to take that risk.
“They expect the government to go out and look for it, and once the reserves had established and the presence of hydrocarbons, then the private sector would come in and develop it. It is the same concept that we are adopting based on the President directives. Then after Kolmani River III, we will go about 7 to 8 kilometers away from the third location to go to Kolmani River South East Location, and it would be the third well that we intend to drill successfully, just after this.”
SOURCE: oglinks.news
